A DRUG dealer involved in a cocaine conspiracy worth hundreds of thousands of pounds will have to pay back just £10 because he has 'no assets'.

Steven Binning was one of the conspirators working under Mohammed Nasar, dubbed the 'puppet master', who orchestrated the bulk supply of the class A drug into Worcester.

The father-of-three appeared at Worcester Crown Court on Friday for a proceeds of crime application, a formal attempt by the prosecution to claw back criminal cash including money from dealing drugs.

As previously reported, Binning, now aged 37, of Audley Drive Kidderminster handed over 1kg of cocaine to taxi driver Saeed Iqbal on November 13, 2015 in Stourport Road, Kidderminster.

Iqbal was arrested later that day in in Conway, off Tolladine Road, Worcester when the drugs consignment was seized.

Binning, who had denied any involvement in the conspiracy, claimed he had been handing over a cash loan of £1,500 to Iqbal. Binning said the loan was intended for Nasar, the man later convicted of leading the drugs conspiracy and dubbed 'the general' and the 'puppet master' by the prosecutor, John Butterfield QC.

The gang was unanimously convicted of the conspiracies and jailed for a total of 53 years in March last year.

Nasar of Keswick Drive, Warndon, received the longest of the sentences handed out to the gang - a 17 year jail term. Binning was jailed for 10 years.

Nasar made more than a quarter of a million pounds (£300,000) out of the conspiracies but at a further court hearing in September last year claimed to be worth less than £15,000 - a fraction of the amount he's believed to have made from selling drugs.

Aaqib Nasar, then aged 22, of Bath Road, Worcester, was jailed for 12 years; Robert Degaris, then aged 48, of Popert Drive, Worcester was jailed for 14 years.

Sophie Murray, prosecuting, said the benefit figure for Binning (the value of the 1kg of cocaine) was £42,500 but after 'bottoming out the ownership of various properties' it had been discovered he had 'no assets'.

Miss Murray therefore asked for a 'nominal order of £10' which he must pay within 28 days or face an extra day in jail.

Edward McKiernan, defending, said: "It would be remiss of me not to agree with that figure your Honour."

"It would" said Judge Robert Juckes QC who sentenced the conspirators at the original hearing.

The judge warned Binning that he could he be pursued for that £42,500 upon his release from prison.

Both cocaine conspiracies took place between January 1, 2015 and December 8, 2016 and involved between them around 2kg of cocaine. However, judge Juckes said plainly the amounts involved were ‘more than that’.

Nasar was a wholesaler, supplying cocaine to Ashley James and his associates to then sell on to addicts and users on the streets of Worcester. James was jailed for 18 years in November 2017, getting his cocaine from Liverpool and, more locally, from Nasar.

Degaris handed over cocaine to ex Worcester City footballer Chris Cornes and Marcus Henney on May 13, 2015. Cornes and Henney were arrested minutes after the meeting at the junction of Deansway and Copenhagen Street in Worcester with half a kilo of cocaine worth between £15,000 and £22,500.