Wolverhampton tanning studio boss drug dealer Darren Bradley must pay £405k

Darren Bradley, described by a judge as a 'Godfather' figure, owned a string of properties throughout the Black Country and splashed the cash on a £128,000 Bentley as well as Mercedes, Range Rover and Audi vehicles.

The 44-year-old, who is currently serving a five year sentence, claimed his "booming" tanning studio empire funded the flashy lifestyle, which included a £385,000 house on the Penn Road, in Gospel End. But Recorder Richard Jones QC, sitting at Birmingham Crown Court, said the defendant would "say anything that would advance his own interests".

During yesterday's Proceeds of Crime hearing he said that Bradley made £2,285,738 from dealing cannabis. The judge ruled that cash and assets worth £540,673 were available for seizure by the court and ordered that £405,505 be paid by Bradley, who ran Elite Tanning and Beauty Ltd with shops in Bilston, Coseley and Sedgley.

He will face a further 42 months' jail if he fails to cough up the cash within the next six months.

During the three-day hearing, the court was told that as well as the tanning studio business, Bradley, of Penn Road, owned or had a share in a car wash firm, pub, gym and cafe. He claimed that his studios had a turnover of between £2.5 million and £3m over 10 years and that this came from all of 'his and his wife's hard work'.

In 2011, 100 officers raided homes and businesses connected with Bradley resulting in 7.6kg of skunk cannabis being found.

At his 65-year-old mother's house in Bilston's Britannia Road they found a 9mm Russian-made Baikal pistol. Bradley was jailed for five years for possession of a firearm, and three years to run consecutively for conspiracy to supply cannabis.

He then had 10 weeks added to his sentence after it emerged he and a fellow prisoner had orchestrated a fake goods racket.