A DRUG dealer who made £50,000 from selling cocaine has less than £5,000 which can be seized by the police.

When Corey Whitney, 28, was caught by police in Tredegar last March he had more than £3,500 in cash.

Officers also seized mobile phones which implicated him in the supply of the class A drug.

Detectives started to investigate Whitney when they seized a phone from another drug dealer.

Whitney was back at Cardiff Crown Court for a proceeds of crime hearing.

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Nik Strobl, prosecuting, said the defendant had benefited by £50,000 and had £4,500 in available assets from “vehicles” he owned.

Jeffrey Jones said the assets were already in the hands of the police.

Judge Matthew Porter-Bryant said Whitney had two months to hand over the £4,500 or face an extra month in prison in default.

During the defendant’s sentencing hearing in July 2023, Nicholas Gedge, prosecuting, said: “The defendant was a street dealer.

“There were requests on phones for drugs to be supplied on credit.

“One message asked, ‘Delivery?’ “There was a reply, ‘What are you after?’ The customer answered, ‘Stone or flake. It’s got to be fire though.’ “That is a reference to crack cocaine and cocaine and high quality drugs.”

Mr Gedge added: “When the defendant was being interviewed by the police after his arrest, he told them, ‘I’m a crackhead, I just want to go home.’ “He said he had started smoking crack daily since his father died two years ago.”

Whitney, of no fixed abode, Tredegar admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine, possession of criminal property and possession of cocaine.

He had a previous drug-related conviction for attempting to deal cocaine in 2016.

Mr Jones, mitigating, asked the court to take into his client’s guilty pleas.

His barrister added: “He was entrenched in class A addiction for around two and a half years stemming from the tragedy of losing his father.”

“The defendant was only dealing in the drug he was addicted to.”

Whitney became homeless as a result of his drug habit and also lost his part-time job as a garage worker.

The defendant, of no fixed abode, Tredegar was jailed for four years.