Sussex drug dealer must pay more than £95,000 (From The Argus)

Sussex drug dealer must pay more than £95,000

10:39am Wednesday 13th March 2013 in News

A drug dealer has been ordered to pay back more than £95,000 of criminal profits.

After detectives found more than 300 cannabis plants in a Bexhill home, Stuart Mellody was sentenced to 42 months imprisonment.

Sussex Police has now received a confiscation order at Lewes Crown Court which means the 49-year-old of St Kitts Road, St Leonards, must pay £95,642 into public funds.

If he fails to comply with it he will be sent back to prison for a further two years and still have to pay the money.

Inspector James Scott, of Sussex Police, said: "This is a great result and a thorough investigation successfully.

“A substantial amount of this money will be available to support crime prevention initiatives [such as CCTV].”

The plants were found after a raid in September 2010 on a property in Barnhorn Road, Bexhill.

The building had been adapted solely for the use of producing cannabis with each room having an internal steel security door.

The electrical supply to the property had also been tampered with to supply the cultivation, meaning the property had to eventually be cut off from the mains supply by the electrical supplier.

Following the criminal investigation, Mellody was charged with production of cannabis and abstraction of electricity.

He was jailed in April after pleading guilty.

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