A man involved in a plot to supply his jailed brother by throwing tennis balls stuffed with drugs over the perimeter fence has had £39,000 of his assets confiscated.

Father-of-three Ashfaq Elahi Hussain was jailed for 18 months in December after admitting involvement in the bizarre scheme to supply drugs to his brother Asiq who was serving a 12-year jail term for drugs offences at Ashwell Prison in Leicestershire.

Hussain, 36, of Woodlark Close, Queensbury, and two other men had been under police surveillance when the plot was hatched in late 2003.

In January 2004 officers watched as a van pulled up to the prison's perimeter fence and the tennis balls containing the drugs were thrown over.

Unfortunately for the plotters the balls landed in between two fences. When they were recovered by police and prison staff they were found to have been stuffed with skunk cannabis, cannabis resin and steroids.

Hussain, nicknamed Landi, was described as the controlling hand in the "cool and determined" plot when he was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court last year. Today he appeared before Judge Peter Benson again at Bradford Crown Court for a confiscation hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Prosecutor James Bourne-Arton told the court that an agreement had been reached between the parties for a sum of £39,000, which had been seized by police, to be confiscated.

Barrister Balbir Singh, for Hussain, pointed out that his client was agreeing to the order because he was unable to call witnesses to satisfy the court that the money was legitimate.

Mr Singh said they were not accepting that Hussain, who is now out of custody, was a large-scale drug dealer, but he was unable to satisfy the burden of proof in the confiscation hearing.

The money is already in the police's possession, but Judge Benson formally ordered that if the cash was not paid over in seven days Hussain could face a further 18 months behind bars.

Hussain's brother Asiq Hussain Elahi 38, of Branksome Court, Heaton, was jailed for 12 years in November 2001 for conspiring to import heroin and supply Class A drugs.

During a trial in his absence, the court heard Elahi was one of Bradford's biggest drug smugglers.

Hussain called his brother "The Big Man" during conversations recorded by the police during their surveillance operation which foiled the tennis plot.