Dudley heroin dealer told to pay £1,400 after being caught out by clothing
A drug dealer who was caught by police due to his smartly-dressed appearance has been ordered to pay back the £1,485 cash he was found with.
Zohabe Akbar, from Dudley, was jailed for four-and-a-half years in July after admitting possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply.
Now the 24-year-old has been ordered to pay back the cash he was carrying at the time of his arrest within three months or face a further one month in jail.
Akbar made an estimated £16,435 from dealing, prosecutor Amiee Parkes told Warwick Crown Court, but his only available asset was the £1,485 seized from him when he was detained.
Judge Sylvia de Bertodano ordered that amount to be confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
During the original hearing Ian Ball, prosecuting, explained to the court how Akbar had been caught in Nuneaton on August 30 last year.
Two plain-clothed police officers became suspicious because Akbar, who was "of tidy appearance," was with a scruffily-dressed known drug user in Short Street.
The two men walked to Church Road and went into a house divided into bedsits which it was known were often occupied by drug users.
When the officers went to one of the bedsits the door was eventually opened by Akbar, and inside they saw a woman from Wolverhampton curled up on the bed.
Akbar had more than £1,400 in cash in his bag and in his jacket pocket were 12 £10 wraps of crack.
Meanwhile in the bedsit, the officers found sets of scales, cling film, two phones and the keys to two Vauxhall Corsas parked nearby.
In one of the cars they discovered a stash of drugs packaged in larger amounts of up to 28 grams.
There was just under 72 grams of crack and 76.4 grams of heroin which, if divided into £10 deals, would have had a street value of around £14,800, said Mr Ball.
Akbar was granted bail, and in February this year the same officers saw four drug users waiting around in Norman Avenue, Nuneaton, before a black Mercedes pulled up next to them.
As the officers stopped behind the Mercedes and another police car pulled up in front of it, Akbar got out and ran off, but was caught after a chase.
He was given a consecutive six-month sentence for handling the stolen Mercedes while on bail.
Jailing Akbar, Judge Anthony Potter had told him: “You came to the attention of police officers because of your appearance.
“You were a smartly dressed healthy-looking young man in the company of individuals whose appearances were showing the results of taking class A drugs, and you were seeking to supply them with the drugs you had on your person and in a car nearby.
“They were drugs you were quite cynically giving to people who were showing the signs of being addicts, and you were making money from their misery.
“It is obvious you were conducting this trade for financial gain.”
A previous proceeds of crime hearing had been adjourned for an investigation into Akbar's finances.
