A COUPLE who ran an illegal business selling contraband tobacco and cigarettes from their Coleford home were ordered to hand back their ill-gotten gains of £100,000.
At Gloucester Crown Court Harold Bennett, 73, and his wife, Susan, 54, who had already been found guilty of a variety of offences associated with their cottage industry, were given just a month to pay the money under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
If they do not pay they will go to prison - Bennett for 15 months and his wife for nine months, Judge Michael Cullum ruled.
The Bennetts were also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £6,500 each within six weeks.
In September the court heard that Bennett used his State old age pension to finance the setting up of the operation at their home in Mushet Place.
When they were raided by Customs and trading standards officers in July last year they had £20,000 worth of tobacco and more than £70,000 in cash in their home.
The raid was launched after officers kept watch on the couple’s house in May and June last year.
Prosecutor Alan Fuller told the court that the couple’s lawyers had agreed that Bennett profited by £80,000 from the business and his wife by £20,000.