Dad-of-three Carl Davies who was jailed for two-and-half years after he turned to selling drugs instead of booze has been ordered to hand over nearly £85,000.

At a financial hearing under The Proceeds of Crime Act, it was agreed Davies had a criminal benefit of £121,484 from the drugs enterprise.

But a police probe showed the available amount for confiscation was £84,864.

Judge Niclas Parry, sitting at Mold Crown Court, gave him three months to pay.

He would have to sell a property to raise the money and the judge warned that an extension of time would only be granted if it could be shown that real efforts had been made to sell the property.

Davies was jailed at an earlier hearing in February and the issue of confiscation was adjourned at that stage.

The court heard how Davies was an off-licence owner who was struggling to make ends meet – so he decided to branch out into growing cannabis.

He rented a bungalow and set up the operation in its garage.

When police turned up at the property with a warrant to sear the premisies, they found 81 plants that could have made Davies up to £136,000 on the streets, it was claimed.

Davies, 54, was found to have around £18,000 in his bank account.

He had got involved in cultivating cannabis after his once-successful off-licence began to struggle after a series of bad business decisions and competition from the supermarkets.

As a result of the pressure, he ended up getting divorced and couldn’t get any further loans from the banks to prop up his flagging shop in Holywell.

So Davies, of Nant Uchaf in Nercwys, near Mold, decided the only option was to go start selling cannabis.

When police turned up at the cottage he’d been renting, they found cannabis, a list of dealers, scales, heat-sealed bags, digital scales and around £1,200 in cash.

Cocaine on a mirror and a rolled up £50 note were also found in the living room.

Davies, by then of Martin’s Mews in Mostyn, accepted full responsibility for what he’d done, and said he was embarrassed by his crimes.

Since a young age, Davies and his brother had run a business of small retail convenience stores which were very successful in the 80s and 90s, selling everything from alcohol to DVDs.

He sought to expand but had not taken advice and ended up paying for a lease in Colwyn Bay for many years for a property which could not be used, the court was told.