[A] CARLISLE crook caged for his role in a £250,000 drugs supply plot has been ordered to surrender criminal assets of just £4.18.
Aaron Fuller, now 36, was locked up at the city’s crown court in 2015 for conspiring to supply heroin and cannabis.
Fuller, of Atkinson Crescent, was part of an massive drugs ring smashed by officers who seized Cumbria’s largest ever heroin consignment from addresses in Carlisle.
Street supplier Fuller was handed a 10-year prison term, while Carlisle associates Gary Duncanson, 54, was jailed for 20 years – later reduced to 16 on appeal – and 49-year-old David Hales received seven years and four months. Several Merseyside-based couriers who transported illegal drugs hauls into Cumbria were also locked up.
Police officers set about trying to recover criminally-obtained assets from gang members. And at Carlisle Crown Court today (WED), Judge Peter Hughes QC heard Fuller had benefited from his illegal activities to the tune of £14,079.95.
However, Fuller was found to have available assets of just £4.18 – £4.07 in one bank account and 11 pence in another.
Judge Hughes ordered this amount to be surrendered within 28 days.
The court heard Hales, of Thirwell Gardens, Carlisle, had benefited from his illegal activities to the tune of £208,403.50. Almost £195,000 comprised his share of the drugs recovered by police.
He was found to have available assets of £56,649.75. This must be surrendered within three months, two years’ imprisonment being set in default.