Wolverhampton factory boss to repay £40k over drugs stash

A Ferrari-driving businessman jailed for setting up a huge cannabis factory at his Wolverhampton firm has been ordered to pay back £40,000.

Jack Santos was given a 15-month prison sentence last November after admitting to growing the drug to avoid laying off workers from his struggling city company, Marblecraft.

The firm employed 22 people and turned over £2 million a year at the height of its success. But it "fell off a cliff" because of a steady decline in the construction industry.

It left Portugese-born boss Mr Santos struggling to pay VAT and tax demands of around £100,000.

The 48-year-old secretly started growing cannabis in metal containers at the business site, on Wolverhampton Science Park, and at his home in Cheshire.

Yesterday a judge at Wolverhampton Crown Court ordered him to pay £40,000 within six months under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

A number of Santos' workers were offenders released by courts and those with mental health issues who would struggle to find work elsewhere, the court previously heard.

Police raided the firm following a tip-off in March 2010. They seized a red Ferrari, believed to be a 360 Spider worth around £40,000, a Leike motorbike and a Land Rover Discovery.