A DRUG dealer has failed in his bid to save nearly £3,000 of his ill-gotten gains from the taxpayer.

Daniel John Rocks almost emptied his bank account less than a month after he was arrested with 16g of heroin in his sock, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecution barrister Ian Mullarkey said he did so to prevent it being confiscated under laws aimed at stopping criminals benefiting from their crimes.

Rocks claimed from the witness box that his parents had given him the money for his forthcoming wedding and he had repaid it. The wedding is now on hold. But Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC did not believe him and ordered him to hand all the money over within 56 days - or spend three more months in jail.

Rocks, 30, of Burdyke Avenue, Clifton, York, is serving 18 months after admitting possessing heroin with intent to supply, on top of a two-year term he got in January for threatening to cut up three terrified people "like little mice" with a Samurai sword.

Mr Mullarkey said Rocks had £970 on him when police raided his girlfriend's home and found the drugs, which were worth about £350.

Rocks lived on benefits, but had £2,910 in his bank account that was not legal income. The day after his arrest, he started withdrawing money and within three weeks had reduced it to a £75 balance.

He claimed that the money in the bank account and the £970 came from gambling or from his parents for his wedding.

But the judge said his gambling success was "something of a miracle" because Rocks did not know what he had betted it on, or the details of the sport he alleged he betted on.

And he doubted the story about money from Rocks' parents.

The judge ordered that Rocks had made £4,230 out of his drug dealing.

His only assets were £2,945, including the money he had tried to hide plus the £970 on him on his arrest. The judge ordered him to hand it all over.

In January, Rocks was jailed for two years after denying charges of affray and carrying an offensive weapon. A York jury convicted him after a one-day trial during which Rocks' next-door neighbour Victoria Holdway described how he threatened to cut her and her two friends up "like little mice" and chased after them with a Samurai sword.