Richard Paul PHILLIPS, 41, from Swansea has been ordered to pay £55,000.00 from the benefit he obtained from drug trafficking. During a hearing at Swansea Crown Court on 8th June 2007, His Honour Judge G. Price made a confiscation order for monies deemed by the Court to be the proceeds of crime. This order followed PHILLIPS’ conviction, in November 2006, for various offences including possession with intent to supply Class A, B and C drugs.
It was established, by the Court that PHILLIPS’ criminal benefit amounted to £55,000 and he has been ordered to pay this sum within 6 months. If PHILLIPS fails to pay the amount ordered within the required period he faces a default sentence of 2 years which is in addition to the 7½ years he is currently serving for the drug offences.
Additionally, in an earlier separate hearing at Llanelli Magistrates Court in February this year, over £21,000 cash which had been seized from PHILLIPS at the time of his arrest was ordered to be forfeited.
The Dyfed Powys Police and Wales RART investigation commenced in July 2006 when PHILLIPS was arrested in a Carmarthenshire hotel, following a report of a domestic disturbance. Police attended the scene and upon entering PHILLIPS’ hotel room discovered traces of drug misuse. PHILLIPS was arrested on suspicion of possession of controlled drugs with intent to supply.
Searches of the hotel room, PHILLIPS’ car and his home resulted in large quantities of cocaine, amphetamine, cannabis resin and cash being discovered.
Alan Brown, Operational Team Leader at Wales RART said:
Richard Phillips probably considers himself extremely unfortunate to have his drug dealing activities discovered as a result of what appears to have been little more than an argument with his girlfriend in a hotel room. However the reality is that the truly unfortunate are the innocent public who have suffered at the hands of drug addicts who commit crime to pay the likes of Mr Phillips for their drugs.
The results achieved in this case reinforce the Proceeds of Crime ‘Pay-Back’ message. In addition to the significant custodial sentence imposed, over £76,000 of criminal funds have been removed and will, through the Home Office Incentivisation Fund, be made available to tackle further criminality at both a local and national level.