A MATURE student made £25,000 after he turned to drug dealing to help finance his college education.

Kerry McCann was jailed for three years in March and was back at Mold Crown Court for a financial hearing under The Proceeds of Crime Act.

An order was made that £4,945 belonging to McCann, 34, of St Margaret’s Way, Wrexham, should be confiscated.

The court was told that the money was already in the possession of the prosecution and had been seized at the time.

McCann, who had never been in any trouble before, had almost completed his three-year college course when he was caught.

He had been described in court as a man of potential with “a future full of golden opportunities”.

But he had thrown it all away, believing he could manage a class A drugs habit.

A judge told him that was impossible and warned him that but for his guilty plea he could have received a five-year sentence.

Police who raided his flat found cocaine with an estimated street value of about £6,900 plus £4,950 in cash.

He told officers: “I was going to stop next week once I had finished college.”