A VALLEYS man who benefited from more than half a million pounds through his “criminal lifestyle” was ordered to pay back £20,000 by a judge.

Nicholas Strange of Dale View, Nantyglo, appeared at Cardiff Crown Court for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing after he was jailed in December 2009 for 22 months for gaining mortgages for properties in Cardiff and Ibiza using false documentation.

He also had £72,000 in his account that he couldn’t explain to authorities and over £200,000 in cash was found at his Spanish home.

Strange, 27, pleaded guilty to two charges and was released in December 2010 after serving half of the 22 month sentence.

The court heard that Strange should have been sentenced in May 2009, but was arrested by Spanish police after travelling to Ibiza, where he was held until August 2009. This was in connection with over £200,000 found in his flat which forms part of an ongoing drugs investigation.

He told yesterday’s hearing he used the same false identification he bought the Cardiff flat with to get an £80,000 mortgage on the Ibiza villa in February 2008.

After staying there for the summer, he said he left, renting it out. Strange denies the money found in his flat was his.

Defence barrister Notu Hoon said there is no evidence the money discovered in the flat was Strange’s, while prosecutor John Probert said it’s the defendant’s from “general criminal conduct”.

But, he concluded the money is “the joint property” of Strange and the apartment’s tenant, saying that added to the two mortgages and other monies seized, Strange benefited £543,973.78 from his “criminal lifestyle”.

But, with the Cardiff flat now repossessed and sold and the Ibiza apartment subject to a restraint order from Spanish police, the only recoverable assets were £28,000 seized by UK police on his arrest.

This will be given to mortgage lender Lloyds TSB to make up for money lost in repossessing the Cardiff flat.