Courts confiscate drug dealer's house and land

Courts ordered the confiscation of a convicted drug dealers house and land to recover £130,000 at a hearing on 21 June 2006 at Warwick Crown Court.

At the hearing it was established that Brian Charles MEDCRAFT had benefited from his criminal conduct to the value of £437,000 and a Confiscation Order to the value of £130,000 was granted, and Medcraft given 12 months to pay, with a 2 year additional sentence if the order is not complied with within twelve months.

This Confiscation Order is additional to a Cash Seizure of £24,545 recovered from him on his arrest in February 2005 following a Warwickshire Police investigation into substantial drug trafficking of Class A Drugs in the Warwickshire area and other parts of the UK. This was part of a wider drugs operation which culminated in February last year.

On 30 September 2005, at Warwick Crown Court Medcraft pleaded guilty to two offences of supply a Class A controlled drug and one offence of offering to supply a Class A controlled drug, and was sentenced to four years imprisonment.

Following his arrest the Regional Asset Recovery Team commenced a confiscation enquiry in order to establish the benefit of Medcrafts criminal conduct.

Warwickshire Police CI Martin Samuel said "We are delighted with this result as it takes the profit out of drugs. Convicted drug dealers can expect to lose their home and possessions if courts decide the money used to buy them came from criminal activities."

The Regional Asset Recovery Team is part of the Regional Task Force which also includes the Regional Crime Unit and Regional Intelligence Unit.