Jailed drugs kingpin has £31,000 of assets seized – but is allowed to keep £1,000 collection of designer trainers
Mark Symeou was handed a ten-year jail sentence after being convicted of running an army of street dealers who supplied class A drugs
A DRUGS lord who funded a lavish lifestyle by flooding the streets with almost £1 million of heroin and crack cocaine has been allowed to keep his £1,000 designer trainer collection.
Mark Symeou, 29, was handed a ten-year jail sentence after being convicted of running an army of street dealers who supplied class A drugs.
A police investigation revealed he pocketed at least £305,000 in just ten months - and used the cash to splash out on an Aladdin’s cave of designer clothes, trainers and six Rolex watches.
But a Proceeds of Crime hearing, held at Preston Crown Court, Lancs, ruled he now has just £31,000 of assets - which he must pay back to the court.
Guy Mathieson, prosecuting, told the court large quantities of cash, clothing and jewellery were recovered during a raid at Symeou’s home in Norris Green, Liverpool.
Money from the sale of those items - along with funds stored in Symeou’s frozen Halifax bank account, will be seized to repay his debts - leaving just £1,000 of trainers which can not be sold on the second-hand market.
Symeou’s barrister Andrew Alty agreed with the figures and asked for nine months for his client to pay.
In 2014, Symeou - nicknamed “Scouse Ste” - was trafficking drugs from his home city of Liverpool and Morecambe, Lancs.
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Symeou would take orders by mobile phone and dispatch street dealers to deliver the drugs.
But in March 2016, seven members of the gang were jailed for a total of 30 years after Lancashire Police smashed open the operation.
Brett Gerrity Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West said: “This gang were responsible for a major supply chain of Class A drugs, heroin and cocaine, with which they flooded the streets of Morecambe.
“The drugs were transported from Liverpool where Mark Symeou controlled the operation at arm’s length, in order to avoid getting his own hands dirty.
“We have worked closely with Lancashire Police to dismantle the gang, remove them from society and take the harmful drugs off the streets in order to restore Morecambe back into a safe community.”
Cops allowed the convict to keep his trainer collection because they were deemed not to have any resale value.
They believed people would be reluctant to buy worn trainers, which were in a worse condition than the second hand clothes which were being flogged.
