Criminal told to pay £400,000 or face four more years in jail

A CRIMINAL jailed for drug trafficking and money laundering must give up cash and assets worth nearly £400,000, including a County Durham property.

Gordon Ruckledge, 47, has been ordered to pay £396,653.71 within three months after National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators obtained a confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. If Ruckledge fails to pay up he will have four years added on to his 16-and-a-half year jail term. Ruckledge’s assets included properties in the UK and Spain, together with money in bank accounts. They were all subject to a restraint order. He was also the joint owner of 11 properties in the UK, including four in Manchester, three in Halifax and one in Stockport, Ashton-Under-Lyne, Leeds and Consett. He also owned or co-owned properties in Benalmadena in Spain.

During the confiscation hearing at Leeds Crown Court, the judge found that Ruckledge had benefitted from general criminal conduct by £1,619,747.90 and that his available assets were found to total £396,653.71. Ruckledge was arrested by the NCA at his home in Taunton Road, Ashton-Under-Lyne, in September 2016. He pleaded guilty to 10 drug and money laundering offences in March 2017. During a search of his house and car, investigators found more than 1,000 ecstasy tablets, a kilo of high purity cocaine and approximately 2,000 pills labelled as temazepam and tramadol, both class C drugs, as well as around £50,000 and EUR14,000 in cash.

Peter Frain, NCA senior investigating officer, said: “This sends out a message that not only are we targeting and prosecuting criminals involved in this type of offending, but that when we do find them we have the power to strip assets from them to ensure they don’t benefit financially or materially from their crimes.”