Nelson drugs minder ordered to repay £30,000 (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Nelson drugs minder ordered to repay £30,000

7:20pm Thursday 9th July 2009 in

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A DRUGS minder caught with five-and-a-half kilos of cannabis when his car was torched outside his home has been ordered to repay police £30,000.

Waseem Afzal, 27, was jailed for 21 months at Burnley Crown Court over the drugs haul, which was discovered when firefighters extinguished a burning BMW outside his home in Camden Street, Nelson.

In another police raid Afzal, an engineer, was found with nearly eight grams of cocaine, which he insisted was for his own personal use.

He admitted possession of cannabis with intent to supply and possession of cocaine but told the court he had kicked his own drugs habit.

Investigators from Lancashire Police’s financial investigation unit later applied to the courts for a confiscation order, under the Proceeds of Crime Act, so he would be penalised for his ill-gotten gains.

Judge Simon Butler, sitting at Burnley Crown Court, has now told Afzal he must pay back £30,000.

If he fails to hand over £7,000 to the authorities within six months then he could be recalled to prison to serve a further six-month jail term.

Financial Investigator Det Con Tracy Edmondson said: “In most cases the main motivation for criminals is financial gain.

“Using confiscation powers available to us as part of the Proceeds of Crime Act, we are determined to show offenders that crime doesn’t pay.

“This is one of a number of recent confiscation orders and I hope it sends a message to those who think they can profit from crime.”

The court heard, when Afzal was originally jailed, that he had only just acquired the BMW with the drugs haul.

But the car was supposedly torched because of a dispute he was having with another group of men in the area.