DRUG dealer Glen Driver, who was caught with more than £13,000 worth of cocaine in his Berkeley home, will have to pay back more than £35,000 for his crimes, a court heard today.
Under the Proceeds of Crime Act passed in 2002, any cash or assets that cannot be proved as earned legitimately by the defendant are automatically assumed to be the proceeds of criminality by police and seized.
Today's hearing was the result of an investigation into Driver's finances by Gloucestershire Constabulary's Economic Crime Unit and the figures were agreed.
Giles Nelson, prosecuting, said the benefit figure had been set at £64,518.83 and the amount available was £35,518.83 - which was the amount to now be confiscated.
Recorder Duncan Adam, sitting at Gloucester Crown Court, told Driver that he would have to pay that figure within six months or spend 18 months in prison.
"That sum is to be paid by July 3, 2008," he said.
In April last year, when he was jailed for three years, the court heard how Driver, 24, of The Brambles, Berkeley, turned to drugs after the death of his father at the age of just 53 and was dealing for most of the previous year.
Driver, described as a previously respectable, honest and hard working builder, admitted possession of cocaine with intent to supply on September 1 last year.
He also admitted of possession of ecstasy and a canister of pepper spray.
Mr Nelson, prosecuting, said police raided Driver's home early on September 1 and found 22 ecstasy tablets and 8.16 grams of cocaine hidden in the dustbin in the back garden.
In a kitchen drawer detectives found a canister of pepper spray with £625 in cash.
A bedside cabinet drawer revealed another canister of the same spray, which causes a burning sensation to the skin, said Mr Nelson.
"In a multi coloured bag on a coathook in a cupboard under the stairs was a bag containing a solid white block. It was a quarter of a kilo of cocaine.
"The search also revealed a plastic box in which were scales, spoons and traces of white powder. "
Also found, said Mr Nelson, was a 'dealer's list' of names and figures and a Stroud and Swindon Building Society book with 'healthy balances' on it of up to £10,000.
Messages found on mobile phones in the house indicated Driver had been dealing since at least January 2006, Mr Nelson said.
Robert Duvall, defending, said the probation service pre-sentence report on Driver was 'compassionate' and positive and virtually pleaded for a suspended sentence.
But he said he recognised that the offences were too serious for anything other than immediate jail.
Driver had left school at 16 with eight GCSEs and came from a respectable family which had never had any involvement with the courts, Mr Duvall said.
His mother is an administrative manager for an insurance company and was at court with his sister to support him.
Mr Duvall said Driver and his family had been devasted in 2004 by the sudden death of his father, aged 53.
The rest of the family had counselling but Driver, being 'the man of the household,' did not and he resorted to drink and drugs, Mr Duvall said.
Jailing Driver, Recorder David Lane QC said there had to be a prison term given the scale of his dealing and the value of the drugs found - but he was also mindful of court of appeal directions to keep sentences to a minimum because of overcrowding in prisons.
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