A major Carlisle drugs criminal serving a 16 year jail term is to be stripped of nearly £160,000 of his ill-gotten profits.

Gary Duncanson, 54, was the mastermind behind an audacious heroin plot which ended after police seized £250,000 of the class A drug - the largest consignment ever intercepted by police in Carlisle.

He was one of four men jailed for the conspiracy.

Police believe the gang may have flooded Carlisle's streets with up to £1 million worth of the drug.

At the city's crown court yesterday, Judge Peter Hughes QC was told that Duncanson, of The Crescent, Cummersdale, had benefited from his drugs crime to the tune of £195,000.

They have managed to claw back £158,896.23 of his cash.

Prosecutors used powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act to seize Duncanson's assets, but the exercise was complicated by the defendant having had a previous financial interest in a family business.

His family were represented in court by barrister Brendan Burke.

Both he and Duncanson's lawyer Jon Close, and proecutor Jacob Dyer were involved in discussions about what assets should be seized.

Mr Dyer said the defendant had been receiving 25 per cent of the rent generated by a house in Charles Street, Carlisle, owned by his father.

The lawyers thrashed out which assets can be seized.

The court heard that some of the money comprised of shares he had in residential properties owned by his family in the Carlisle area.

About £40,000 of the cash he held was his share in a family business.

Duncanson was originally locked up for 20 years at Carlisle Crown Court in September last year after he was convicted of conspiracy to supply heroin.

He was one of four men jailed for their roles in the drug supply network which was smashed by Cumbria Police as part of Operation Hive.

The trial judge heard that the gang had distributed around six to eight kilos of heroin - while officers seized drugs worth about £250,000 from homes in Carlisle.

Duncanson, who denied the offence, was convicted after a trial.

He later challenged his 20 year sentence at the London's Appeal Court where top judges cut his his sentence to 16 years.

His co-accused Aaron Fuller, 35, of Atkinson Crescent, Harraby, also denied conspiring to supply both heroin and cannabis but he too was convicted after a trial.

He was jailed for 10 years.

The two other conspirators in the gang were David Hales, 47, of Thirwell Gardens, St Aidan’s, who took delivery of a 2kg heroin consignment and courier Paul Smith, 30, who brought the drugs from Liverpool.