A jailed Cardiff drug dealer has been ordered to pay back just over £1,700, a small fraction of the £166,184 a court found he gained from his offending.
Louis Moates, 28, of Hollybush, Whitchurch, was in court again at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday, October 22 for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing.
The confiscation order
The court heard that although Moates’ criminal benefit was more than £166,000, he has only £1,734 in available assets.
Judge Vanessa Francis gave him 12 weeks to pay. If he fails to pay, he will spend an extra month in prison.
Two raids less than a year apart
Officers first went to Moates’ home with a search warrant on August 25, 2023. He was detained and gave police the pin code to his phone before they searched the property. They seized:
- 122g of green vegetable matter suspected to be cannabis, with a street value of between £660 and £960
- weighing scales and a grinder
- plastic bags containing pills
- a quantity of cash
Police went back on June 20, 2024. This time only his partner was at the address, and she let them in. Officers recovered:
- 148.3g of cannabis, worth between £790 and £1,530 on the street
- 143 codeine tablets and 141 diazepam tablets
- zip lock bags, scales and cash
Moates was arrested at his place of work and taken into custody.
What the phones revealed
Officers examined two mobile phones. Several messages showed Moates was involved in supplying cocaine and crack cocaine.
He also had a tick list, and he had sent messages to drug runners who were working for him.
His Telegram account showed he was in contact with an upstream supplier. That supplier posted drugs to addresses belonging to his father and his partner.
Guilty pleas and sentence
Moates admitted:
- being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs
- possession with intent to supply Class B drugs
- possession of Class C drugs
He was jailed for a total of 187 weeks at a sentencing hearing at Newport Crown Court in January.
