A court has confiscated more than £3,000 from a drug-dealing rapist after a hearing at Hove Crown Court.
Shane Gibbs, 36, is serving a life sentence for plying four women with drink and drugs before raping them in hotels and Airbnbs in Brighton and Hove.
Gibbs, who called himself Blue and Top G, also carried out sex attacks on two others during a spree of offending over two months in late 2023.
He was found with just over £3,100 when he arrested in a Travelodge hotel room in Portsmouth on Thursday 4 January 2024.
At his trial almost 18 months ago, Jennifer Knight, prosecuting, said: “Police found Shane Gibbs surrounded by cash and a large amount of drugs.
“When the drugs seized from the room were later analysed, there were found to be quantities of cocaine, MDMA, methylamphetamine, ketamine, GBL and cannabis.”
Last week, he appeared by video link from prison for a confiscation hearing before Judge Christine Henson, the trial judge.
Barrister Gareth Burrows said that a police financial investigation estimated that Gibbs had made about £58,000 from drug dealing. Gibbs, who represented himself, disputed the figure.
He said that he had only started drug dealing when he lost his previous job in July 2023, a few months before his life took a downward spiral. He was arrested less than six months later.
Mr Burrows said that, before the hearing, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had sent its assessment of the financial benefit to Gibbs under the Proceeds of Crime Act (PoCA).
But Gibbs had not responded, he told the court.
Gibbs told the court: “I set all this out in a letter to the CPS.”
But, he said, the correspondence sent to him by the CPS said that “any response should be served on the crown by email”.
He reminded the court that he was in a high-security prison and said: “I don’t have access to a computer or email.”
Mr Burrows said that the CPS had no record of receiving the letter from Gibbs and the hearing was adjourned briefly to allow Gibbs to speak privately with Mr Burrows.
When the hearing resumed, Mr Burrows accepted that, realistically, Gibbs would be unlikely to have any more benefit than the cash seized by the police on his arrest.
Judge Henson, who jailed Gibbs for life with a minimum tariff of 18 years, ordered that the final sum to be confiscated from him would be the £3,100 cash.
