A gang who ran a drugs factory from shipping containers in Carshalton before being jailed after their own CCTV footage was used against them in court have been ordered to hand over nearly £240,000 of their criminal profits.

A judge ordered brothers Steven and Maurice Brooks and accomplices Michael Searl and Leigh Yarrow to pay £239,941 during two confiscation hearings on Thursday, June 23, and Monday this week at Croydon Crown Court.

Carshalton drug factory gang's own CCTV helped find them guilty

On July 21 last year the four men, aged between 33 and 45, were jailed following a police raid that uncovered 10 shotguns, £12,000 in cash, 350g of dried skunk and 160 cannabis plants.

The gang slipped up when footage from their own CCTV cameras, intended to protect their factory, showed them regularly visiting the premises in Lower Pillort Down, near Woodcote Park Golf Course, for several hours at a time.

Steven Brooks, 43, of Lower Pillory Down, who was jailed for 54 months for possessing a firearm and producing cannabis, must pay £186,346. 80 or face a further two years and three months in prison.

Maurice Brooks, 36, also of Lower Pillory Down, was ordered to hand over £23,542. 83 to the court or received an extra 13 months on top of his 15-month jail term. He was pictured grinned from ear to ear in his police custody photo after his arrest.

The brothers both faced their confiscation hearing on Thursday, June 23.

Searl, 45, of Shaldon Drive, Morden, who was jailed for 27 months for cultivating cannabis in July, was ordered to pay £22,942.83 or face another 13 months on top of his sentence.

And Yarrow, 33, of Ross Road, Wallington, who was locked up for 24 months, will face another 40 days behind bars if he does not cough up £2,109. 50.

Their confiscation hearing was held on Monday, July 25.

The gang members have three months to pay the money to the Home Office under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Dave Stringer, borough commander of Sutton police, said: “These are significant amounts of money and we hope that this case sends out a message that crime doesn’t pay.”