A DRUGS gang member has had a rare sports car sold by police under Proceeds of Crime legislation.

The high-performance Austrian-built KTM X-Bow, which can cost more than £60,000 and has featured on the Top Gear show, is understood to have been sold for about £24,000 after being seized as part of an investigation into Tahir Ali's finances.

In March last year the 28-year-old, of Thornton Lane, Little Horton, Bradford, was jailed for 11 years for his part in a £1.8 million heroin and cocaine conspiracy.

The huge haul of Class A drugs was discovered in an industrial unit at Lessarna Court, West Bowling, Bradford, after two officers on routine patrol raised the alarm.

Two other Bradford men Sheeraz Khan, 33, of Garibaldi Street, Thornbury, and Saif Al-Meskry, 22, of Thornton Lane, were also jailed for 11 and nine-and-a-half years respectively after they also admitted involvement in the conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Sentencing the trio Judge Peter Benson said it had been an extremely sophisticated operation which was capable of producing vast profits and flooding the streets of Bradford with heroin and crack cocaine.

Ali's thumb print was found on a "dealer list" which showed trading in excess of £420,000 in one month alone.

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The court heard the rented unit was a production plant for crack cocaine and a warehouse for the distribution of large quantities of heroin.

The drugs were also found to be up to four times the normal strength of drug purities usually found in West Yorkshire, which would have enabled the gang to produce even larger quantities of drugs.

Today, Ali was brought to Bradford Crown Court from prison for a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act and prosecutor Timothy Capstick told Judge Benson that the financial figures had been agreed between the parties.

He said Ali's benefit from criminal conduct had been assessed as £200,000 and his available assets amounted to a little more than £96,000.

It is understood that in addition to the sports vehicle Ali's assets also included interests in residential properties and land in Bradford.

Amendments to the legislation mean that Ali must now pay back the £96,086.62 as part of a confiscation order within three months or face an extra 12 months in prison on top of the jail term he is serving.