Raza Miah from The Beeches, Tunbridge Wells, ordered to pay back remaining assets at Maidstone Crown Court following Kent Police investigation
Published: 15:00, 18 August 2014
Updated: 15:24, 18 August 2014
A convicted drug dealer who operated in Tunbridge Wells has been ordered to pay back his remaining assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act following a hearing at Maidstone Crown Court.
On December 5, 2012, police officers executed a drugs warrant at the home of Raza Miah, now 39, in The Beeches, Tunbridge Wells, seizing drugs, cash and a Mercedes.
Miah was sentenced last April to two and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to possession of cocaine and cannabis with intent to supply.
Following his conviction financial investigators from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate carried out an investigation into Miah’s lifestyle to establish if he had benefited from his criminal activity.
Over the course of six years Miah was found to have made £64,016.23 from illicit activities.
However, his current assets only stand at £7,024.29, an amount which he has been ordered to pay back within six months.
A four month prison sentence will be added to the amount owed if he does not comply.
Claire Blackburn, a financial investigator at Kent Police said: “Kent Police carry out detailed financial investigations to uncover criminal proceeds. In this case, these inquiries established that Miah had made over £64,000 from his criminal lifestyle.
"His entire wealth at the time of the order was found to be just over £7,000 but we will seek to recover the full amount of his criminality if he is ever seen to have come into money at any time in the future. We will always seek to recover every penny criminals make from crime to put the proceeds back into the community.”
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Ed McConnell