A crook who was part of a £1 million cocaine smuggling operation foiled at Sheerness docks has been ordered by a judge to repay just £1.

Sean Bourke, from Minster, must hand over the paltry sum despite a court being told his financial benefit from his crime, which involved 10kg of the class A drug being hidden in a shipment of bananas, was as much as £929,942.

The 35-year-old was jailed in August last year for seven-and-a-half years after the illicit enterprise was intercepted by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

But under what is known as confiscation proceedings held at Maidstone Crown Court on Wednesday (May 22), Bourke, of Minster Road, was said to have no available assets.

Judge Philip St.John-Stevens therefore made the nominal £1 order, having remarked "unless he wins the Premium Bonds" - a reference to how more money could be seized at a future date if Bourke's financial situation changes.

The court also ordered that any default in the £1 being paid would result in Bourke, who did not attend the hearing, having to serve one extra day behind bars.

He was one of three men jailed for a combined total of almost 22 years after pleading guilty at the same court to an offence of drug smuggling.

Accomplices Salih Saruhan, who once ran Brothers and Scissors barber shop in Sheerness despite claiming to have a hair allergy, and Irnti Rapai face similar confiscation hearings under the Proceeds of Crime Act at a later date.

It was in February last year that the trio unsuspectingly led the NCA to the blocks of cocaine stashed in a shipping container which had arrived at the Port of Sheerness from Costa Rica.

Officers watched as the three men left the barber's in Broadway with extendable ladders. They were then tracked along the seafront to the docks, where 29-year-old Rapai took up a position as lookout.

Saruhan, 32, and Bourke used the ladders to scale the fence before heading to a number of refrigerated containers.

The pair then climbed a maintenance gantry and removed the hatch on one of the containers before fleeing.

However, Border Force officers were waiting for them and they were detained.

Saruhan, of Broadway, had bolts in his pocket which matched the container’s hatch.

Rapai, of Liddon Road, Bromley, was arrested in the car park of a Tesco close to the docks.

Saruhan's subsequent prison sentence of seven-and-a-half years marked a dramatic fall from grace just five years after being nominated for Britain’s best wet shaver in the London and South East area.

He had previously hit the headlines in 2012 when he declared he was allergic to hair and would suffer hayfever-like symptoms such as itchy eyes whenever he served a customer.

Rapai was jailed for six years and seven months.

At the time of their sentencing hearing, NCA senior investigating officer, Adam Berry, said: “This operation is a prime example of our ongoing work and commitment to ensure UK ports are impenetrable.

“Alongside our partners at Border Force and Peel Ports, we are determined to crack down on offenders attempting to exploit our borders.

“Had Saruhan, Bourke and Rapai been successful in their operation, the cocaine they smuggled in would have had a destructive impact on our communities.

“Drugs are closely linked to serious violence throughout the supply chain, as well as firearm and knife crime.

“The sentences passed down to them should serve as a stark warning to anyone attempting to import drugs onto UK soil.”