A Perth dealer who made more than £17,000 as part of illicit county lines heroin operation has been ordered to pay back just one pound.
George Crone was part of a trio linked to a organised crime gang who were caught trying to flood Perthshire with more than £65,000 worth of class A drugs.
The 36-year-old, along with Blayne Gray and Max Donovan from Liverpool, admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin when they appeared at Perth Sheriff Court last year.
They were jailed for a total of nearly five-and-a-half years.
Prosecutors launched confiscation action against the three men in an effort to claw back money they made from the illegal enterprise.
At a Proceeds of Crime hearing before Perth Sheriff Gillian Wade, it was agreed that Crone had benefitted from his role as delivery driver by £17,350.
After an extensive assessment of his finances, he was ordered to pay back a nominal sum of one pound.
Max Donovan, who had been caught red-handed with Crone transporting almost two kilos of heroin, was ordered to pay up £38,820.
At the hearing, solicitor David Holmes, representing Gray, said his client was unable to attend because he had been displaying Covid symptoms.
A further proof hearing to establish the extent of his financial involvement in the operation will be held next month.
Undercover op
The court previously heard how the three men were being monitored by an undercover surveillance unit in Perth when they hid £5,000 cash in a Tupperware box down a rabbit-hole in the city’s Lade.
Crone and Donovan were also seen handing over a bag stuffed with more than £33,000 in cash.
Fiscal depute Michael Sweeney said that a doorstep exchange between Donovan and Crone was intercepted and they were found with heroin with a street value of £65,000.
The gang’s fingerprints and DNA were found on the cash and drugs.
The total amount of money recovered from the trial was £48,483.
Crone, of Newhouse Road, Perth, admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin in Perth between September 10 and 23, 2020.
His solicitor Linda Clark said he had been earlier “involved in the heroin scene” but had cleaned himself up and was attending college.
He was jailed for 23 months.
Donovan, of Cottesbrook Road, Liverpool, admitted being involved in the supply of the drugs between February 18 and September 23, 2020.
He also admitted concealing criminal property.
The 25-year-old was jailed for two years.
Gray, 23, of Culme Road, Liverpool, pled guilty to being involved on March 19 and 20, 2020, and was locked up for 18 months.
Following the sentencing, Detective Inspector Julia Ogilvie, of the Police Scotland Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism Unit, said: “We need the public to keep passing on information so we can disrupt these criminals.”
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