A DRUG dealer has been ordered to sell his two cars so he can pay back the money he made from his crimes.

Stuart James Airey, 22, was given a suspended prison sentence three months ago for supplying drugs to his friends.

And he was back before a judge at Carlisle Crown Court for a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act, the procedure by which criminals are made to pay back any profits they have made from their crimes.

Airey, was said at an earlier hearing to hold an “important” position in his family’s butchery and farm shop business, admitted that he had benefited by a total of £9,616.40 from the offences he committed.

But it was accepted he had realisable assets of only £6,424.06, so that was all he could be made to repay.

His barrister John Harrison told the court that amount included money he had in the bank and his two cars – a £750 VW Golf and a Seat Ibiza worth £775 – which would now have to be sold.

The judge, Recorder Andrew McLoughlin, told Airey he would go to prison for three months if he failed to pay the money within three months.

In January Airey, of Ayside, near Grange-over-Sands, pleaded guilty to supplying the class B drug cannabis, and possessing it with intent to supply it.

He also admitted being concerned in the making of an offer to supply cocaine, a class A drug – an offence with which he was charged only after a prosecution lawyer chanced upon details of incriminating text messages which had previously been overlooked.

The court heard he had been arrested on October 23 2010, after police who stopped his car at Staveley-in-Cartmel noticed it smelled strongly of cannabis.

They found £446-worth of cannabis in the car, along with plastic bags and scales which had clearly been used for drug dealing.

Airey admitted he had been supplying cannabis to his friends, which had led to his looking into where he could obtain cocaine for them too.

He had pooled his pooling resources with his drug-taking friends, which in turn led to his selling drugs to a few of them, the court heard.

Airey was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years and ordered to do 240 hours unpaid community work.

His barrister Mr Harrison said Airey’s offences were “a pretty low involvement in the drugs world.”

And anyway, he said, Airey had made great efforts since to give up drugs and was “quite a different person now to the person who did these things over 12 months ago.”

Airey was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years and ordered to do 240 hours unpaid community work.