Former Bradford boxing champion George Bailey faces a £100,000 confiscation hearing after he was caught growing and harvesting £40,000 of cannabis.

A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing, scheduled for yesterday at Bradford Crown Court, was postponed until April 10, after Alisha Kaye, for the Crown, said Bailey had not responded to a request for financial information.

Bailey was spared jail in January last year after the court heard he became addicted to cannabis to ease chronic back pain. He boxed for England in his heyday as a professional flyweight fighter and was tipped to win the British title.

Bailey was described as “a boxer of heroic proportions” by Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC who sentenced him to 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years.

Bailey, 51, was arrested when police raided his home in Bescot Way, Shipley.