A drug dealer made more than £150,000 from peddling heroin and crack cocaine, a Court heard.
Qamar Zaman returned to Bradford Crown Court from jail yesterday for a confiscation hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Zaman, 28, was locked up for four-and-a-half years in December, 2008, for supplying class A Drugs, possessing criminal property and money laundering.
Duncan Ritchie, for the Crown, said Zaman’s agreed benefit from his criminal activity was £156,549. The biggest part of his ill-gotten gains was put down as the mortgage on a house, while the rest was in cash. Mr Ritchie said the available amount left for the Crown to seize was £10,174. Of that, £8,674 was money seized from Zaman when he was arrested and £1,500 was “hidden assets” from an Audi A4.
Judge Peter Benson told Zaman he would serve an extra year in jail if he did not pay in six months.
Zaman, who pleaded guilty to the offences, told a mortgage lender he was earning £28,000 a year and used £16,000 from one of his five bank accounts to buy a house in Southmere Terrace, Bradford.
In 2007, drugs squad officers seized 200 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine from that address, along with bags and scales. Police also found bundles of heroin-contaminated bank notes totalling £8,000. While on bail Zaman was filmed supplying class A drugs to undercover officers.
Detective Inspector Neil Benstead, head of the Bradford District Drugs Team, said: “This financial hearing result is an excellent example of the police and the courts stripping the criminal benefits of drug dealers.”
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