Dealer made £1,400 but only pays £1 back

By Staff Reporter

Last updated 09:22, Saturday, 10 May 2008

THREE drug dealers made nearly £55,000, but have been ordered to pay up just a third of their profits because they don’t have any more money.

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Donna Keenan

And one of them, 23-year-old Donna Keenan, of Burnett Road, Carlisle, only has to pay back £1, despite a judge ruling she profited by £1,461.27.

Keenan, who was jailed for two years in January, was caught with £5,000 of heroin stuffed down her trousers after police mounted an undercover investigation watching over the home of suspected dealer Aaron Underwood in Penrith.

Underwood, 31, and Harold Nicholson, 58, of Borland Avenue, Carlisle, were both jailed for four-and-a-half years after being convicted of drug dealing.

At a Proceeds of Crime Hearing at Carlisle Crown Court yesterday, judge Peter Hughes QC heard how Underwood, of Friargate, was said to have benefited by £25,051.48 but only had £616.20 in cash – the amount that was seized by police when he was arrested.

Nicholson was said to have made £28,728.81 and had assets of £1,300 in cash, a £12,500 4x4 and small amounts in bank accounts.

He was ordered to sell his jeep and surrender all of his cash within 56 days.

The court heard how Keenan, who admitted possessing heroin with intent to supply at an earlier hearing, had no assets and so a nominal sum of £1 was ordered to be paid within 28 days.

The three, who were arrested after police saw a procession of people calling at Underwood’s house to buy drugs last June, were ordered to pay a total of £17,904.66.

Keenan was said to have been “used” by Underwood and Nicholson, who were both “more experienced and older.” Nicholson also denied possessing £1,331 cash, which the prosecution claimed he made from drug dealing. A jury found him not guilty of this charge.