A millionaire restaurant owner jailed for running a cocaine empire has been ordered to forfeit £300,000 proceeds from drug deals or face staying behind bars for longer.

Anacleto Capetta, 39, was jailed for eight years in December last year after he turned his popular Italian restaurant, Leonardo in Hove, into a cocaine takeaway.

Police raided the restaurant in Church Road in April 2003. Shocked customers were ordered to remain at their tables while officers searched the premises.

After his arrest Capetta, 39, was the first person in the country to have his fortune put under police control as part of tough new legislation.

His assets, totalling £1.3 million and including a BMW and his restaurant, were put in the hands of an official receiver after an order was granted under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

At a hearing at Lewes Crown Court yesterday, Judge Richard Hayward made a confiscation order for £300,000.

Capetta was warned he faced three further years in jail if he failed to hand the cash over to the Crown.

Capetta, who lived in Sackville Road, Hove, was ordered to pay defence costs of £10,000.

He will also have to pay the £140,000 cost of the official receivers' work in managing his assets.

The court heard there was to have been a three-day hearing to decide how much Capetta had profited from his drug dealing. However, the two sides had agreed the figure of £300,000 after negotiations.

Capetta, who had admitted being concerned with the supply of cocaine, is expected to sell property he owns to pay the money, which is due to be handed over within six months.

Kennedy Talbot, representing Capetta, told the court Capetta maintained he had only dealt in drugs from February until April when his restaurant was raided and had not made more than £99,000.

But investigations into his finances suggested there might be an element of tax evasion and in order to settle all matters, Capetta was willing to accept the figure of £300,000.