ONE of the plotters in a major drugs ring - whose members were caught on camera giving a baby bundles of cash to play with - has been ordered to repay more than £50,000.

Cannabis growers had left the job of setting up farms to the likes of Trang Nguyen, who secured properties including a house in Roe Greave Road, Oswaldtwistle.

Plants worth £80,000 were found there by detectives, as they dismantled a drugs conspiracy stretching across the north-west.

Nguyen was linked not only to the Oswaldtwistle house but another cannabis farm, found in Croxdale Avenue, Liverpool, Burnley Crown Court was told.

Detectives seized a home video, shot by some of the conspirators, showing a baby being given bundles of money to handle.

Ringleader of the gang, Jack Nguyen, 28, from Bootle, was jailed for more than seven years for leading the network, which was estimated to be worth at least £820,000.

Trang Nguyen, also 28, of Webster Avenue, Liverpool, was imprisoned for 40 months, after being convicted of her role in the same conspiracy.

Lancashire Police made an application under the Proceeds of Crime Act, which was contested by Trang's lawyers.

Vincent Blake-Barnard, for Trang Nguyen, said it was "disproportionate" to claim his client should be held liable for the profits said to have been made at the two addresses.

Her role, a previous court hearing was told, was to secure rented homes, by posing with another as expectant parents, or a couple with a newborn child.

Mr Blake-Barnard said similar orders were not being sought against Jack Nguyen, the acknowledged leader of the conspiracy and it was clear his Trang Nguyen did not play an active role in the cannabis growing.

But Jeremy Grout-Smith, prosecuting, said it could be argued that, without Trang Nguyen's input in securing the properties, the benefits from the cannabis farms may not have accrued later.

Judge Stuart Baker, who presided over the original cannabis conspiracy trial, agreed that the total benefit figure for the defendant was £66,605.

An investigation had determined the money available for repayment was £50,628 and Trang Nguyen has three months in which to pay the sum, or face an additional 12-month prison sentence.

Several other Vietnamese nationals were jailed last December on drugs conspiracy and money laundering charges, in connection with the same inquiry. Thousands was spent on renting out anonymous terraced houses across the region, then advertising 'skunk' grows for sale.