A TAXI driver jailed for dealing drugs from his vehicle has been ordered to pay back £646 of his ill-gotten gains.

Iftiqar Ali, who had been a licensed cabbie since 2017, was caught with a £10,570 stash of the Class C sleeping pill type drugs.

He was jailed for 21 months at Bradford Crown Court in March but his sentence was later reduced to 18 months by the judge, Recorder Taryn Turner.

On Friday, at a confiscation hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act, it was ruled that Ali’s benefit from drug dealing was £11,182 and the available amount to be seized from him was £646.

Of that, £530 was already in the hands of the police after officers found it in his taxi when he was arrested.

Ali, who appeared before the court on a video link to HMP Liverpool, was ordered to hand over the balance of the money in three months or face an extra two months behind bars.

At the sentencing hearing, the court heard that Ali, 52, had Diazapam tablets in his hand after he was stopped by the police on Shay Lane, which runs between the Ovenden and Holmfield areas of Calderdale, on February 28 last year.

A search of his home turned up a stash of Diazapam, Etizolam and Tamazepam, prosecutor Imran Khan said.

Ali, of Frank Street, Thrum Hall, Halifax, pleaded guilty to three offences of possessing Class C drugs with intent to supply.

Mr Khan said his taxi was pulled over by the police because intelligence had been received that he may be drug dealing.

Ali’s hand had to be prised open to reveal the tablets and he shouted to another taxi driver in a language the police officers did not understand.

Ali had 14 previous convictions for 33 offences.

They were driving offences and matters of dishonesty, Mr Khan said.

His barrister, Shufqat Khan said the father-of-three was deeply ashamed and regretful about what he had done.

He had anxiety and panic attacks and turned to prescribed sleeping pills to help him.

When he could no longer get them from his doctor he sourced them himself meaning he could sell some of them on to others.

Recorder Turner told Ali it was a very serious matter that called for immediate custody.

He was dealing in drugs as a sideline because he wasn’t making enough money from taxi driving.

“The court is disgusted and horrified,” she said.