A DRUG dealer who lived the high life has been ordered to cough up thousands of pounds from his ill-gotten gains.

Nicholas Ward, pictured right, was jailed for four and a half years after he admitted possessing cocaine worth £28,500 with intent to supply, which police found stashed in a microwave at his home in Eastbourne.

Officers had stopped him while he drove a Range Rover in Polegate and found he had £3,600 in unexplained cash.

The 38-year-old decorator was investigated and his bank accounts revealed he had pocketed nearly £100,000 in unexplained cash credits and transfers in the past six years.

He tried to claim it was from doing cash-in-hand work such as tiling or bathroom refits, but he had no documents, receipts or invoices.

Lewes Crown Court imposed a Confiscation Order under the Proceeds of Crime Act, seizing assets worth more than £27,000.

Ward, of Turnberry Drive in Hailsham, now has three months to pay the sum, or face a further ten months behind bars, while still having to pay up.

Police from the economic crime unit say there is also an option to recover the rest of the money for the rest of Ward’s life if further assets are discovered.

Officers first stopped Ward in Hailsham Road in Polegate in March 2016, then carried out a raid on his family home in Helvellyn Drive in Eastbourne.

At the address, they found other small amounts of cocaine, cutting agents, grip seal bags and weighing scales.

In March this year he admitted his part in supplying the class A drugs and was jailed.

He was deemed to have a significant role in the supply chain.

Meanwhile he denied a charge of money laundering the £3,610 cash found in the car. The court ordered that the charge would lie on file and not be proceeded with.

Detective Inspector Mark O’Brien said: “Funds seized by the courts through confiscation or cash forfeiture orders go to central Government. However a proportion of this is returned to law enforcement. Similar amounts go the Crown Prosecution Service and the court system.

“Funding that returns to this force is distributed equally between the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Chief Constable.

Sussex Police receive half back from cash forfeitures and 18.75 per cent cash back from confiscation orders such as these.

“We fund financial investigators and intelligence officers from part of these amounts to help continue our valuable work in seizing criminal assets, with the remainder being used to support local community crime reduction and diversion projects.

“In some cases, like this, the amounts financially seized or forfeited are initially less than the amounts we estimate the criminals have benefited from.

“But it still sends the important message that we will always go after criminal assets even beyond conviction, to try to transfer them to lawful and useful purposes.”