A MAN converted profits from growing and selling cannabis into gold and silver.

Police who raided Barry Nedderman’s Deane Church Lane home in December 2017,found more than £8,000 worth of gold and silver bullion.

On May 24 last year he was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison after he pleaded guilty to producing cannabis resin and several courts of money laundering.

The cannabis found had a wholesale value of more than £39,000 and between 2012 and 2017 Nedderman had deposited proceeds of his crime in a Royal Bank of Scotland account, used cash to pay a mortgage and made purchases of precious metals from Bullion Vault, Bleyer Bullion and the Royal Mint.

At Bolton Crown Court this week he was found to have benefited from his crimes to a tune of £130,713.45.

Judge Timothy Stead was told that investigators have only been able to discover assets worth £97,333.80.

Helen Longworth, prosecuting, told how most of the assets are equity Nedderman has in property.

Nedderman appeared at court via a video link from Berwyn prison in Wrexham, where he is currently serving his sentence.

Judge Stead ruled that he should hand over his assets within three months or face spending an extra 15 months behind bars.

It was not the first time that Nedderman has had to hand back cash from growing cannabis. In 2010 Nedderman, who was described as a loner, was given a four year prison sentence for growing hundreds of cannabis plants in three properties.

He was forced to sell two of the properties after he was ruled to have made £261,000 from his drugs operation and was ordered to pay back £115,000, including £6,000 in gold bullion traced to a bank in Zurich.