Two Brighton drugs dealers have been hit with confiscation orders totalling nearly £40,000.
Tony Draper, 46, of Old Shoreham Road, Brighton, currently serving three years in prison, was given a confiscation order for £38,940.33 at Hove Crown Court on Friday 23 April.
Draper faces an extra 15 months inside if he does not repay the sum within nine months.
The confiscation results from a Sussex Police investigation after the uninsured car he was driving was stopped by officers in June 2008.
Cannabis, amphetamines, offensive weapons, firearms and £2,000 cash were found in the car.
Searches of his home found more amphetamine and cannabis, and a small cannabis hydroponics factory in his garage.
While on bail awaiting trial for this, a further drugs warrant was executed at Draper’s home in October that year.
This time he had more 6kg of skunk cannabis and more than £1,000 cash, drugs equipment including electronic scales and grinding equipment, and stolen blank birth and marriage certificates.
He was charged and remanded in custody.
Draper was sentenced in May 2009 having pleaded guilty to having drugs with intent to supply them, producing drugs and having firearms and offensive weapons.
Dean Shaw, 43, of Loyal Parade in Mill Rise, Brighton, currently serving eight years in prison, was given a confiscation order for £1,000.
The sum, also ordered to be paid by Hove Crown Court on Friday 23 April, must be paid within 90 days.
Police were called to sounds of a disturbance at Shaw’s address in December 2008.
They found the door smashed in and inside a large scale cannabis factory with more than 150 plants.
Police financial investigators found numerous bank accounts and credit cards, along with a mortgage document fraudulently obtained by him.
In November Shaw pleaded guilty to cannabis production, money laundering of £790,000 and obtaining 17 bank accounts and credit cards by fraud.
He was sentenced to eight years in jail.
The hearing last month found that he had benefited by more than £1 million.
However, the £1,000 confiscation order reflected the fact that he was now bankrupt as result of not being able to follow his criminal lifestyle after his arrest.
In the past financial year Sussex Police has secured 179 confiscation orders in court after convictions.
The value has reached a record £2.39 million for the force.
Detective Inspector Chris Neilson, of Sussex Police’s Economic Crime Unit, said “These are just some of the latest results of continuing hard work by our officers, and in particular our expert financial investigators.
“We now target not just the criminals but also the profits of their crimes, whether they be from drug dealing or any other form of criminal activity.
“It can take time and each investigation is subject to a court-authorised confiscation order, and criminals need to know that where we think they have profits, hidden thought they may be, we don’t give up after sentencing.
“Financial investigation is increasingly at the heart of all criminal investigation.”
