A drugs baron who was jailed 12 years ago has been told the amount of money he will have to repay has been slashed.

Darren Finch, from Detling, near Maidstone, was expecting to hand over more than £1m to authorities.

But now a judge has heard his assets raised only £695,775 following the sale of cars and property in South Africa.

Finch went on the run when his multi-million pound drug supply business, which had stretched from Kent to Newcastle, collapsed in 2008.

Police had cracked his crime ring and 22 gang members were later jailed.

The 52-year-old fugitive, who lived in Scragged Oak Road, Detling, was arrested on an International Arrest Warrant in Cape Town in July 2010.

And in May the following year he received a five-and-a-half year jail sentence at Maidstone Crown Court.

Finch was then subjected to an financial investigation under POCA when calculations were made about his benefit from drug dealing of £1,039, 819.

He was since repaid more than £600,000 and now Judge Oliver Saxby KC has agreed his assets were worth £695,775.

Finch headed up the organised gang which delivered cannabis and other drugs throughout England.

The drugs were brought in from Germany and the Netherlands to Kent, hidden in lorry loads of legal goods, then taken by lorry to one of two hubs - Lested Lodge in Chart Sutton and St Margaret’s Farm in Dartford.

A network of distributors was then employed to deliver the drugs to the north west of England.

Finch was not in court to hear the case, which had an amusing moment when the judge spoke to the prosecuting lawyer who was appearing by video link from Cardiff Crown Court.

Judge Saxby quipped it looked as if the barrister was sitting in a prison cell, only to be told he was as it was the only room available for the prosecutor.