Terrance Murphy ordered to pay £60,000 for his part in Kent's largest cannabis growing gangs with farms in Rochester, Gravesend, Sittingbourne and Norfolk
15:05, 16 November 2018
updated: 15:06, 16 November 2018
A man involved in Kent's largest operation to grow cannabis has been ordered to surrender £60,000.
Terrance Murphy, 47, of Caspian Way in Purfleet, Essex, plotted with 14 other offenders to grow cannabis.
The group planted 16,428 plants from 2013 and 2015 in High Street, Rochester, Canal Basin Gravesend, Staplehurst Road, Sittingbourne and in North Walsham in Norfolk.
In 2017 Kent police seized the cannabis farms, which were worth £25 million per year.
Murphy was sentenced to three years in prison for conspiring to cultivate cannabis and abstracting electricity.
Police applied for an order for Murphy to pay back the money he earned from the crime.
The Court ruled that he was in possession on £60,000 which he had to pay within three months or face an extra 18months in prison.
Serious Economic Crime Unit, Detective Inspector Annie Clayton, said: "Murphy helped fund a major criminal enterprise and this order means he will not be able to enjoy his ill-gotten gains when he is released from prison.
"For serious and organised offending such as this, it is often the case that the Police’s work does not end at the conclusion of a trial.
"We will continue to use the full remit of the powers available to us to ensure people who commit crime in Kent are not able to benefit from their offending."
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