A JUDGE has ordered a pensioner from North Cornwall to pay £35,000 within six months after his conviction for drugs offences.
John Edwards, who was convicted at Truro Crown Court last year of cultivating 24 cannabis plants at his home at Widemouth Bay, was given a 12-month community order and a three-month electronically tagged curfew.
Now the 66-year-old may have to sell his £250,000 home in Long Park Drive to pay the money.
Police said that, following his conviction, a confiscation investigation by the Cornwall Financial Investigation Unit began. The team went through up to six years of financial records.
A confiscation hearing has now been held at Truro Crown Court, where the defendant produced five witnesses to argue his case.
But Judge Nelligan said he found the defence evidence "utterly fanciful" and ordered Mr Edwards to pay £35,058.87 within six months.
This figure included £6,129.50 of drugs found at his premises.
A police spokesman said: "Mr Edwards has assets of a house, which he had valued at £250,000. Mr Edwards will need to find the money to pay the order and that could mean he may have to sell his house to realise the order value."
A spokesperson from Cornwall Financial Investigation Unit said: "We are pleased that following a drug trafficking conviction in Bude, a confiscation application at Truro Crown Court was successful.
"This large sum of money will need to be paid back by the defendant and shows that we endeavour to continue to make sure that crime does not pay.
"The law allows us in certain circumstances to look into the defendant's financial affairs going back six years.
"The Proceeds of Crime Act is a robust piece of legislation that we will continue to use to break up, deter and financially hurt criminals operating in our area.
"A bonus is that part of these funds will come back into force for onward distribution to local good causes."
At the original court hearing Edwards said he cultivated cannabis in his home to alleviate the pain he had suffered since falling off a ladder 18 years ago.
He admitted growing 24 plants, which he said would have lasted him about a year for self-medication.
The value of his cannabis crop, said Elaine Hobson, for the prosecution, would have been about £6,000.
The offence came to light when police officers investigating the death of an elderly woman in Bude went to Edwards' home to speak to his son, Paul.
They found cannabis plants being grown in a shed and a bedroom under an amateurish growing system.
Judge Christopher Harvey Clark, QC, told Edwards that he had been a hardworking man, who, because of his injury, had suffered pain and disability.
Unwisely he had turned to cannabis.