A TAXI driver turned drugs chauffeur who helped peddle crack cocaine and heroin in Worcester is out of jail early after serving just over one year of a four year prison sentence.

Former taxi driver Shakur Hussain is also contesting confiscation of his cash which prosecutors say was earned illegally from dealing class A drugs in Worcester.

Hussain, 39, of Compton Road, Worcester, appeared at the city’s crown court on Wednesday, looking considerably thinner than he did during his trial. He was jailed at Hereford Crown Court last July after he was found guilty of conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin on the streets of Worcester and possession of criminal property. He was released ‘only recently’, meaning he has served, at most, 17 months.

We have previously reported how officers stopped Hussain’s taxi in Loves Grove, next to Worcester Police Station on October 16, 2017.

Inside the Mercedes was found £1,890 of criminal cash and Hussain’s boss, Asgar Khalfe.

The court had heard at a previous proceeds of crime application that Hussain made £75,000 trafficking heroin and crack cocaine into Worcester as prosecutors seek to claw back the criminal cash.

Steven Bailey, for the prosecution, said at a hearing on Wednesday that they had yet to receive a forensic accountant’s report from the defence. It was due to be served on September 13 this year. However, Mr Bailey said Hussain’s claim that the money was from a legitimate source had not been accepted by a jury at trial.

“The timetable has, I’m afraid, stalled” he said.

Hussain’s barrister, Sophie Murray, said a forensic accountant had been instructed that her client had not been able to meet him as yet.

“There are issues he wishes to raise with his forensic accountant. He did not have the benefit of a conference with him prior to the report being drafted” she said.

She said there were ‘at least two or three potential witnesses in relation to some of the sums in his accounts’. Miss Murray referred to a ‘savings club’ Hussain was involved in. The forensic accountant would need two weeks to finalise the report. Judge Nicholas Cole ordered the report be served on the Crown by January 24 next year. The Crown will then need six weeks to respond.

A hearing with a one day time estimate is expected to take place after March 16 next year. Shakur Hussain was one of four conspirators jailed for a County Lines drug dealing operation, foiled as part of Operation Blade.

It was a conspiracy which came to an end in dramatic fashion on a Worcester street on October 16, 2017 when one of the conspirators drove over the leg of a police officer during a failed getaway, causing him serious injuries.

At a previous proceeds of crime application hearing Mr Bailey said a ‘benefit figure’ for Hussain of £75,746 had been identified with available assets of something over £33,000 calculated, some of the equity being in a house in Worcester.

Hussain had been Khalfe’s ‘regular driver’ and made payments on his behalf, allowing him to remain ‘under the radar financially’.

Hussain had booked City Nites apartments in Arena View, Edward Street, Birmingham under his own name, later used as a crack cocaine factory.