A drug dealer who escaped a jail sentence has been forced to stump up £30,000 found in a cardboard box where he was staying.
William Ellison, 31, is also short of a couple of motors after a court ordered their forfeiture.
It was the culmination of a court case that began in July when he was sentenced and a second hearing last Friday to determine how much he had made from his drug dealing.
Ellison, of Langley Close in St Ives, was convicted of possession with intent to supply cannabis and possession of criminal property in July, following an investigation by Cambridgeshire Constabulary.
He received a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.
Following his conviction, financial investigators from the ERSOU Regional Organised Crime Unit began enquiries into Ellison to determine how much money he had made from his illicit activity.
Using the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) law, it was established that his criminal benefit was £78,541.57.
On Friday (2 December), a confiscation order was made against Ellison for the total value of his assets, including £30,000 cash found and seized from a cardboard box at an address where he was staying.
The order also included a 1986 Ford Escort RS Turbo and 2007 Mitsubishi Evo Lancer which were stored by a third party at a remote farm location.
Ellison had claimed that some of the cash had come from an inheritance from his father around 17 years ago, despite evidence indicating otherwise.
The total value of the cash and assets was found to be £77,837.84, with Ellison given three months to pay the amount in full or serve a default prison sentence of 12 months.
Financial investigation manager Clare Joyce, from the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU), said: “This case once more underlines that ERSOU specialist financial investigators will continue to use POCA’s asset recovery powers to strip the assets of those who profit from crime.
“We will continue to work alongside our law enforcement colleagues in Cambridgeshire and beyond to ensure that those in our communities who seek to benefit from the supply of illegal drugs are stripped of the very thing that motivates them to engage in this vile trade.”
