Drug dealer ordered to pay back additional £10k

A man from Torquay who was jailed for six years back in 2016 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply drugs has been ordered to repay a further £10,000 of his criminal proceeds.

Steven Loveridge, age 48, was previously investigated by Devon and Cornwall Police after a cannabis plantation was discovered in an underground bunker on his land in Shaldon, South Devon. 

At a hearing in 2018, it was agreed he had made £200,000 from his crimes but only had £33,600 available. A confiscation order was made for that amount. 

In 2024 – and some time since Loveridge’s release from prison - the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SWROCU) was asked by Devon and Cornwall Police to review his existing confiscation order and the possibility that he had further funds available. 

SWROCU’s Asset Confiscation and Enforcement (ACE) team identified that Loveridge had new assets and had them restrained. Loveridge contested the increase but on Wednesday 11 June at Exeter Crown Court, the judge increased the order by £10,000 to £43,600.  

Amanda Alldridge from SWROCU’s ACE team said: “Our team of skilled financial investigators relentlessly pursue the assets of those who have benefited financially from their illegal activity and try to conceal their wealth. We work to ensure justice is done and a perpetrator’s ill-gotten gains are paid back, even many years after a prison term.”