Drug confiscation orders top £400,000 in one day

Published on Monday 16 February 2009 23:19

A CONVICTED drugs dealer was stripped of assets worth £242,125 yesterday, as prosecutors continued their drive to hit criminals in the pocket.

John Gorman, 51, had been suspected of being one of the country's leading players in the drugs underworld before he was given a 12-year prison term.

A second man, Peter Smith, 40, was ordered to hand over 174,712 at the High Court in Edinburgh, bringing to 416,837 the day's total in confiscation orders.

The money seized under such orders is used to help communities blighted by crime.

The court heard that the proceeds of Gorman's criminal conduct had amounted to 760,000, and that he had realisable assets – cash and interests in properties in Irvine, Ayrshire, and Innellan, Argyll – worth 242,125.

Gorman, of Kilwinning, Ayrshire, was convicted of money-laundering and drugs offences following Operation Folklore, an investigation by authorities in Scotland and Spain.

Smith, of Castlemilk, Glasgow, was an associate of another major drugs figure, Jamie "The Iceman" Stevenson, and both were also arrested as part of Operation Folklore.

Smith received a three-year jail term after police found 400,000 of drugs money in his 4x4 vehicle in the south side of the city.