A TAXI driver turned drugs chauffeur who trafficked heroin and crack cocaine into Worcester has not paid back a penny of his criminal cash two years after he was jailed.

Shakur Hussain ferried around drugs kingpin Asgar Khalfe in his cab and paid out thousands of pounds for apartments at Birmingham hotel City Nites so the rooms could be used as a crack factory. Yet he claims he made 'zero' cash from the conspiracy and continues to resist attempts to claw back the money prosecutors say he made peddling class A drugs.

Officers swooped on Hussain’s taxi in Loves Grove in Worcester, near the city’s police station, on October 16, 2017. Inside the taxi was £1,890 of criminal cash and Hussain’s boss, Khalfe, described by the prosecutor as a ‘kingpin’ who used Hussain as cover to ‘stay under the radar’.

Hussain's arrest happened the same day a Worcester police officer was mown down by co-conspirator Christopher Franklin, then aged 35, during a failed getaway.

Hussain, 40, of Compton Road, Worcester, was jailed for four years in July 2018 after he was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin.

Two years on from his sentence at Hereford Crown Court, Hussain, now out of jail, continues to claim that the money in his bank account was earned by ‘legitimate’ means.

Already three judges have presided over hearings about the financial aspects of the case – Judge Nicholas Cole, Judge Nicolas Cartwright and now James Burbidge QC, the Recorder of Worcester, the city’s most senior judge.

Hussain disputes the benefit figure calculated by investigators to be £65,066 – the amount the Crown Prosecution Service say he made for his role. Judge Burbidge hit out at ongoing delays when he addressed counsel at Worcester Crown Court on Friday.

He said: “We have made no progress. It seems to me in all the courts I have worked in – Birmingham, Wolverhampton, here - these things are allowed to drag on and they shouldn’t be.”

The defence has instructed a forensic accountant but the report has still not been served on the Crown. Steven Bailey, prosecuting, said Hussain had £70,000 of equity tied up in a house in Worcester. He told the court the defence’s forensic accountant had identified a benefit figure of over £44,000 but this was also not accepted by the defendant.

Mr Bailey, who also prosecuted in the trial, said of the continued hearings and delays: “This is the fourth time we have said ‘enough is enough’.”

The judge asked Sophie Murray, defending, what her instructions were from about the benefit figure and she said his case was that there was ‘zero’ and added: “There is no benefit.”

Judge Burbidge gave the defence seven days to serve the forensic accountant’s report and said, though her client was out of prison, ‘he may have to go back there’ if the matter was not resolved. Miss Murray said her client’s case was that the money in his accounts was from a ‘legitimate income’ and there was ‘no nefarious basis for these transfers’.

The proceeds of crime application is scheduled to be resolved on October 28.

“There won’t be any further adjournments” warned Judge Burbidge.