A DRUG dealer who bought £13,000 worth of luxury clothes made by top designers like Louis Vuitton is due to have nearly £4,000 seized from him.

Liam Mantell, 22, was handed a suspended jail sentence last November after he was caught with nearly 600g of cannabis when police raided his home.

The defendant, from Oakdale, near Blackwood, was back in Cardiff Crown Court for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing.

Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke heard how Mantell benefitted by £18,785 from drug trafficking and he has £3,849 in available assets.

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The court ordered that the £3,849 be confiscated or the defendant will face three months in prison in default.

During Mantell’s sentencing hearing last year, prosecutor Nuhu Gobir told how the defendant had used his drug profits to splash out on designer clothes.

Mantell’s barrister Andrew Taylor said his client seemed more “Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles than Sirhowy Valley” with Louis Vuitton as one of the defendant’s favourite fashion houses.

Mr Taylor told the court: “All the goods were for him. He had a fixation for expensive designer trainers and wanted designer goods at the top end.”

Mr Gobir said Mantell was busted by police last November after an earlier raid in neighbouring Trinant had implicated him in the supply of cannabis.

The prosecutor told how officers found 586.1g of the class B drug with a potential street value of £4,360 at the defendant’s Oakdale address.

They also came across designer clothes, trainers, a watch and handbag worth a total of £13,551 as well as £1,395 in cash.

Mantell, of Brynhoward Terrace, pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis with intent to supply, supplying cannabis, possession of criminal property and money laundering.

The offences were committed between April and November 2019.

Mantell was a man of previous good character with no convictions recorded against him.

Mr Taylor told the judge, Recorder Dyfed Thomas, his client was a carer for his mother and sisters and how the family had money worries.

He said: “There was very little sophistication and pre-planning in his offending and it did not involve a gang in an enterprise.

“The only pleasure he had was having these goods. He didn’t drink or go out or go on luxury holidays.

“His mother was tens of thousands of pounds in debt and he thought he could assist.”

Recorder Thomas jailed Mantell for nine months, suspended for 18 months.

He ordered the defendant to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and complete a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement.