By Nick Griffiths Crime Reporter

Last updated at 09:55, Saturday, 22 November 2008

A drugs criminal jailed for plotting to deal amphetamines has been sentenced to an extra 18 months in prison after failing to pay back nearly £40,000 of illegal cash.

Keith Mossop, of Cleator Moor

Keith Mossop, 36, of Cragg Road, Cleator Moor, will still have to pay that amount – plus interest – when he gets out as part of police moves to hit offenders in the pocket.

A court heard last year how Mossop, already serving 18 months at that point, would most likely have to sell his home in the west Cumbrian town to pay the money. The amount is what police say he made from his illegal activities and can be seized under legislation increasingly used by detectives to pursue criminals beyond conviction.

Mossop was told to pay the cash within a set time when a confiscation order was imposed at Carlisle Crown Court in April last year.

He was brought before Bolton Magistrates’ Court this week still owing the cash. As a result, magistrates imposed a further 18 month jail term for non-payment of the order.

Mossop was jailed in January 2007 after pleading guilty to possessing amphetamines with intent to supply and illegal possession of a firearm.

A spokesman from Cumbria police’s serious and organised crime unit said: “Confiscation orders hit offenders where it hurts – their wallets – by forcing them to pay back money they have made through their criminal activity. The Proceeds of Crime Act allows for a jail sentence to be imposed if a person does not pay in the time specified by the court.

“Cumbria Constabulary is working closely with the central confiscation unit at Bolton to ensure that those people with outstanding confiscation orders pay them. This sentence should act as a warning to those who have outstanding confiscation orders to pay the order or face a significant jail term.”

The order for the cash seizure followed the discovery of drugs, hidden in the casing around a van’s dashboard, in October 2005.

Mossop originally denied any knowledge of the drugs and claimed they must have been put there by one of the three men who were in the vehicle the previous day. But he refused to name them and later changed his plea.

When he was sentenced in January, the court heard that officers later discovered more of the drug and an air rifle at Mossop’s home.

Police are allowed to keep part of the cash they seize from criminals under the Proceeds of Crime Act. They then use criminals’ own ill-gotten gains to tackle crime.

First published at 09:03, Saturday, 22 November 2008
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk