No deal: cannabis hawker must forfeit his 'game show winnings'

A cannabis dealer has been ordered to forfeit £25,000 which he claimed was winnings from an appearance on the Deal Or No Deal game show.

Karl Rose was ordered to hand over the cash under the Proceeds of Crime Act (Poca) after a court rejected his account of having held onto his windfall for more than five years.

West Midlands Police said Rose was understood to have appeared on the Channel 4 programme in May 2009.

The 29-year-old, of Bruce Road, Radford, Coventry, was arrested in September 2014 after officers responded to concerns over suspected drug-dealing in a nearby area.

Almost half a kilo of cannabis was found in a car - owned by an accomplice of Rose - and a subsequent search of his home revealed bagged cannabis with a value of almost £5,000, as well as £25,480 in cash.

Commenting on the defence to the legal action mounted by Rose, Detective Constable Greg Ashfield said: "We found plenty of evidence showing that Rose was actively dealing drugs and that the cash we found in a holdall was money derived from selling cannabis.

"Incredibly, he asked us and the courts to believe that he kept game show winnings from five years earlier just lying around his house.

"It didn't wash with us or with the judge and under Poca we have now seized the money. It can now be put to good use on crime prevention schemes and community projects."

Rose and three other men all appeared at Leamington Justice Centre on November 5 last year, where they admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply.

All four were handed 12-month prison sentences, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work in the community.