Fugitive Codsall crook must pay back just £13,000

A businessman who went on the run in India after police busted his drugs farm at a rented £1.75 million South Staffordshire mansion will have to pay back just £13,000 – despite pocketing £117,000.

Steven Rodenhurst remains at large and one of his bank accounts was last accessed in Belgium, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard yesterday.

The 58-year-old, who was jailed for four-and-a-half years in his absence in June, has been in touch with his solicitors through telephone calls but has not returned to this country to serve his prison sentence.

During a Proceeds of Crime hearing yesterday, Judge Martin Walsh said Rodenhurst had benefited to the tune of £117,255 as a result of the cannabis farm he created at Greenhills, a seven-bedroom house standing in 20 acres in Codsall.

Judge Walsh ordered that £13,033, which was seized by police from bank accounts, should be kept by the authorities.

A previous hearing heard that officers found Rodenhurst hiding in the house two weeks after they uncovered almost 1,000 cannabis plants.

The retired demolition and salvage company boss was later convicted of drugs charges and granted bail while sentencing reports were drawn up.

But he wrote to the judge to say that he was going to Goa.

The court heard how Rodenhurst had been given 18 months to live by doctors as he was suffering from cancer and a weak heart.

Police raided Greenhills in Stafford Lane on February 17, 2010. Rodenhurst had been renting the property for eight years.

Rodenhurst, who has also used an address in Beeches Road, Kidderminster, claimed the drugs haul was for his own use.

But a jury found him guilty of producing cannabis with intent to supply following a trial on January 16 this year.

By Crime Correspondent Shaun Jepson