A drug dealer who funded his lifestyle by selling heroin and cocaine will have to pay back just £7,510 – with more than 90 per cent of the sum expected to be fetched when police auction his old Rolex watch.
Dealing with the Crown Prosecution Service’s application for the proceeds of crime confiscation order on Tuesday, Judge Michael Gledhill QC bemoaned: “This is one of those regrettable cases where one could say that crime pays.”
Banbury man Lewis Abubakar, who was jailed for almost five-and-a-half years at Oxford Crown Court last November, was estimated to have made almost £210,000 from his criminal activities.
Last year, the court heard he had dealt the drugs in part so he did not ‘sponge’ off his rich girlfriend.
Police had launched an investigation into his activities after Abubakar allegedly approached a police officer in a nightclub and offered him money in exchange for information about other officers.
No charges were brought, but it led detectives to look into the man. They uncovered around quarter of a million pounds in unexplained payments in his bank accounts between 2015 and 2019.
He initially claimed to have earned the money legitimately, although spoke of having a lavish lifestyle that saw him take helicopter rides.
Of £240,000 he admitted laundering through three bank accounts, he was sentenced on the basis that three-quarters of that sum - £180,000 – was cash from drug dealing and the rest was the proceeds of a side line fencing stolen goods.
His barrister at the sentencing hearing, Stephen Kamlish QC, said Abubakar had dealt drugs in part because he ‘didn’t want to sponge off’ a wealthy girlfriend who travelled the world working for her pharmaceutical boss dad.
On Tuesday, after Judge Gledhill suggested that the case showed ‘crime pays’, prosecutor Michael Roques replied: “In terms of the legislation, it’s a lifestyle offence and it would have been the prosecution’s case the defendant was funding his lifestyle through his criminal activities.
“But the money was spent, essentially, on his living expenses, on his lifestyle over the period of the indictment.”
The judge said it was ‘with some reluctance’ that he certified Abubakar had benefitted from his crimes to the tune of £209,420, while the ‘available amount’ that could be confiscated by the police was £7,510.
Of that sum, the majority - £7,000 – was expected to be raised from the sale of a Rolex watch currently held by the police. The remaining £510 was cash found on him when he was arrested.
If the watch fails to sell for the anticipated sum the police will be able to ask the judge to reduce the ‘available amount’.
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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.
To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward
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