WEARING dark glasses and his hood pulled up around his face, he sneaked into the toilets at the railway station, locked the door behind him and planted the package inside the cistern.

Only an eagle eyed cleaner going quietly about his work spotted the unusual goings on and went to investigate.

These dramatic scenes unfolded at Skipton Station on Tuesday and police officers were rushed to the scene.

But it all ended in embarrassment when the package turned out to be nothing more than part of a management training course being run by Magnet Ltd which had gone horribly wrong.

The farcical incident began at 9am when cleaner Jim Davis became suspicious of a man who had spent 15 minutes locked in the toilets.

"I went back in to mop it and I thought 'something does not look right, something is wrong here'."

Mr Davis, from Skipton, noticed the cistern had been tampered with and so looked inside.

He pulled a package wrapped in a black bag and brown parcel tape from the cistern and thinking it was drugs, wrapped it in a cloth and went to his supervisor's office.

On the platform a second man demanded the package be returned. Mr Davis, who cleans 15 stations, said he had often seen drugs and money being exchanged and he was not prepared to give away this package.

Mr Davis told his supervisor what had happened and the man came in behind him, claiming to be from Magnet Ltd.

"I thought 'I am not having none of this' so I went to the ticket office and asked to be let in," said Mr Davis, who knew that it was a secure office and the door could be locked behind him.

The police were called and three officers turned up to solve the problem.

About 15 Magnet employees who had gathered at the office said the package had been part of a management training course and inside was only a CD.

"If it was just a management training thing why put it inside a toilet cistern? Can you imagine anyone doing this?" said Mr Davis. "You only have to think about September 11."

He added that no-one from the company had even thought to tell station staff what was going on.

Skipton Inspector Tad Nowakowski said: "It was quite an innocent exercise which could have got out of control. Unfortunately we managed to stop things in time.

"I know that the company involved now recognises the possible implications. The police were called to a report of a suspect package and we were in the process of dealing with agreed procedures including securing the area and calling out the bomb disposal unit.

"This could have caused serious disruption to the rail services."

The Herald tried to contact Magnet but no one was available for comment.