A crook who pocketed almost £1million from supplying cocaine and cannabis has been ordered to repay a mere £55,000.

The figure equates to a little over 6% of what a court heard was Tom Ambler’s financial benefit from his involvement in the "wholesale distribution of industrial quantities" of the class A and B drugs.

The dad, who was stopped by police on the M20 while driving a VW Caddy van with his young son as passenger and a stash of cannabis inside, was jailed at Maidstone Crown Court in May last year for 11 years and three months.

The 29-year-old was warned that he would be subject to confiscation proceedings and, at the same court on Wednesday July 31, a judge was told Ambler's benefit from the criminal activity was £884,963.

However, with limited assets available, he was ordered to hand over the much smaller sum of £55,010.

Ambler, formerly of Glebe Lane, Barming, near Maidstone, was given three months to pay. If he fails, he will have to serve a further eight months behind bars in default.

Similar proceedings against a second man, 30-year-old Lewis Spratt, who was also jailed for his links to the supply plot, were adjourned until October.

At the pair's sentencing hearing last year, the court was told the operation involved the use of the Encrochat phone network and concerned drugs worth almost £1.5million.

Prosecutor Eleanor Scott-Davies explained that the use of Encrochat was "indicative of serious, organised crime with an intention, and expectation, to make substantial gain."

But once the authorities had cracked the encrypted messages, they were able to link Ambler and Spratt, then of Repton Avenue, Ashford, to the usernames of “gravecheetah” and “sacredboar”.

"The messages from the Encrochat devices showed that Ambler facilitated the wholesale distribution of industrial quantities of controlled drugs, agreeing a quantity and price for the product, before arranging meeting points for exchanges to take place," the prosecutor explained.

Both men were arrested in 2020 and charged with offences committed between January and September that year.

Ambler later admitted conspiracy to supply cannabis and cocaine. Spratt pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cannabis and was jailed for three years and seven months.

At the time of their sentencing, Detective Sergeant Dean Sycamore said the pair were involved in a "sophisticated and complex" enterprise.

"By using encrypted phone devices both men had wrongly assumed they could operate with impunity, believing the network to communicate with their suppliers and customers was secure," he said.

“However, we have been able to access a vast amount of evidence contained within messages they were sending and receiving.

“Our investigation has been able to clearly demonstrate that Ambler was dealing substantial amounts of drugs over a sustained period, selling cocaine by the kilogram at up to £40,000 a time.

“It was also clear that Spratt had played a significant role in this operation, leaving both men with little choice but to plead guilty at court.

“This was a sophisticated and complex criminal network, but one which was ultimately doomed to failure due to the offenders’ mistaken belief they could escape detection.”