A drug dealer from Brighton has had more than £30,000 confiscated at a court hearing.
Paul Bulford, 45, of Bannings Vale, Saltdean, was ordered to pay £31,308 while his partner Kerry Worms, 39, of the same address, was ordered to pay £1,500.
The confiscation orders were made at Lewes Crown Court under the Proceeds of Crime Act three months after the pair were convicted of drugs offences.
Bulford was jailed for nine years at Brighton Crown Court in March for having MDMA, having cocaine with intent to supply, having ketamine and diazepam and money laundering.
Worms was given a suspended sentenced for allowing premises to be used for the production of MDMA which is used to make ecstasy pills.
Sussex Police said: “Financial inquiries into Gavin McCall, 44, of Abinger Road, Woodingdean, who was also convicted at the same time, are continuing and a hearing is due to take place at the same court on (Monday) 5 August.”
McCall was sentenced to eight years in prison for making MDMA.
The sentences and the confiscation hearings all stemmed from an intelligence-led operation by the Serious Organised Crime Unit of Sussex Police.
Detectives raided Bulford’s Bannings Vale home on Friday 7 September last year and arrested her, Bulford and McCall.
Officers seized enough MDMA in tablet and powder form to make 6,663 ecstasy pills, 55g of high-purity cocaine, 1,269 diazepam tablets and more than 2kg of ketamine.
They also found a pill-making machine to turn the powder into tablets with a logo imprint.
More than £32,000 cash was seized at Bulford’s address and almost £9,000 cash from McCall’s address.
Police also recovered more than 2kg of ketamine and more than 5kg of drug adulterants – benzocaine and boric acid – from a vehicle in Saltdean linked to Bulford.
Boric acid is commonly used as an insecticide to kill cockroaches.
The total estimated potential street value of the recovered drugs was £63,612.
All three appeared at Brighton Crown Court on Friday 8 March.
Sussex Police said: “Bulford will have to serve an extra 12 months imprisonment if he fails to comply with his confiscation order and Worms will have to serve an extra 30 days if she fails to do so.
“Both would still be required to pay the money.”
Detective Inspector Chris Neilson, of the Sussex Police Economic Crime Unit, said: “Our expert financial investigators work closely with detectives to ensure we take every opportunity to seek court orders to strip criminals of their profits in addition to any sentences they receive.
“Last year alone we secured court confiscation orders totalling over £1.6 million.”
After the court confiscates money it goes to the Treasury with half of it promised for law enforcement, shared equally between the Crown Prosecution Service, the Courts Service and the police.
Sussex Police said that it used its share to help support the force’s financial investigators and donated some to local crime reduction and diversion projects.
