Tunstall man ordered to pay back £27,000

A Tunstall man jailed for dealing drugs has been ordered to pay back a £27,000 confiscation order.
Derek Edward Beech, aged 56, of Jacqueline Street, Tunstall, received a five-year prison sentence after being convicted in June of three counts of possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply.
A financial hearing was held on Friday 9 September at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court, where the confiscation order was made.
Beech was arrested on four separate occasions between May and September 2010, during which thousands of pounds in cash was seized, together with a car, from him.
As a result of this a financial investigation was carried out by the force’s Economic Crime Unit, culminating in Friday’s hearing where Beech was ordered to pay back £27,947 within six months or face a further prison sentence of 12 months.
DC Mark Kelsall, who led the financial investigation, said: “Beech has received a five-year prison sentence and had all of his assets taken from him.
“This is another example to those who supply illicit drugs that Staffordshire Police will endeavour to bring to justice those who break the law and will use all means at their disposal to ensure that crime does not pay and that offenders have their ill-gotten gains stripped from them.”