A convicted crack cocaine dealer is challenging a Court bid to seize more than £200,000 of assets he is accused of acquiring through crime.

Donald Foster, 45, told a judge today none of his money came from the proceeds of drug dealing.

Foster, jailed for six years in June last year, is said by prosecutors to have made almost £350,000 from a criminal lifestyle.

The Crown says he bought three houses in Bradford with drugs money and must stump up £218,000.

Foster told the confiscation hearing at Bradford Crown Court his money came from casual work, including a job as a steward at Bradford City Football Club, and from gambling large sums of money.

He told the Recorder of Bradford, Judge James Stewart QC, it was best to back a horse each way.

Asked by the judge if he was a lucky gambler, Foster said he was more of a sensible one.

“You know Man Utd is going to beat Bradford City Reserves,” he said.

Judge Stewart replied that he only ever bet on the Grand National and he did not think he had won in the last 20 years.

Foster said he had worked as a cook, decorator, driver and shelf stacker at Morrisons.

And he accused the Crown of double-counting some of the money in his bank accounts.

Foster agreed that a house at 5 Tyne Street, Otley Road, Bradford, was his.

He said two other houses the Crown wants to seize – 9 Tyne Street and 6 Wapping Road – belonged to a woman friend. He said he lent her £45,000 to buy them and she paid him back.

The court heard the woman, who was not in court, was on police bail under investigation.

Clodagh Maguire, for the Crown, said Foster had provided no documentary evidence about the alleged loan.

She told the court cash to buy the houses was “a tainted gift” that acted as a smokescreen to hide Foster’s wealth.

Foster was caught peddling crack cocaine from his home in Oak Mount, Manningham, Bradford, in July 2007.

He pleaded guilty in June last year to one offence of drug dealing and six of money laundering.

The hearing continues.