Court tells drug dealer to hand over £300,000

Colin Milnes was jailed for 15 years in 2008 for possessing cocaine and ecstasy with intent to supply as well as charges of possessing firearms and ammunition, false identity documents and money laundering.

Leeds Crown Court was told then the 48-year-old had a lavish lifestyle with his wife Mary Prendergast. She was jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Yesterday at the same court Judge James Goss QC ruled Milnes benefit from criminal conduct totalled 480,000 and ordered confiscation of 307,906 from his realisable assets.

The court heard that would include his share from the sale of a bungalow in Green View, Scarcroft, Leeds and a terrace house in Holborn Street, Woodhouse Leeds, as well as cash seized from him and 13,000 in a bank account. He will face five years in jail in default.

His wife's benefit was assessed as 368,937 but because they have joint assets the amount available for her was only 1.

Richard Wright, prosecuting, said in 2008 police searched the couple's apartment in Parsonage Lane, Brighouse, after seeing Milnes acting suspiciously .

They found cocaine worth 95,000, nearly 600 ecstasy tablets and banknotes stashed in a footstool. In a drawer they found handcuffs, gun magazines and a fake passport and driving licence. In a bedroom they found a 9mm self-loading pistol and cartridges and a revolver.

When they searched the house in Scarcroft, Leeds, a gun holster, an imitation machine gun and pressing plates used for drugs were seized.