A Newcastle Emlyn drug dealer has invested his ill-gotten gains into £325,000 of cryptocurrency, a court has heard.

A proceeds of crime application (POCA) hearing at Swansea Crown Court last week heard that Fraser Cuberhives, of Sycamore Street, Newcastle Emlyn, has the cash in two bitcoin accounts or ‘wallets’.

Cuberhives, 36, was convicted of concealing criminal property and supplying cocaine following a trial on July 29 last year.

The benefit, that is the amount that the Crown believes Cuberhives obtained as a result of, or in connection with, his criminal conduct, was said to be £380,298.

The court heard that the first wallet contained bitcoin to the value of just over £67,000 while the other had bitcoin in it to the value of just over £258,000.

One of the accounts was held in the Isle of Man and the court heard that the Crown would need international authority to have access to it.

Cuberhives’ defence barrister said that his client did not believe that there was that much in his wallets, but that he did not have access to them to prove this.

It was agreed that the financial investigator and representatives for Cuberhives would work establish what was in the bitcoin wallets.

The court heard that Cuberhives’ co-defendant, Oliver James Skeate, of Nun Street, St Davids, had benefitted to the sum of £10,060 from his criminal activity.

Skeate,33, pleaded guilty to possessing Class A drugs and acquiring criminal property in 2021.

He was acquitted of supplying cocaine and possessing cocaine with intent to supply following a trial on July 29 last year.

At last week’s POCA hearing, Swansea Crown Court heard that Skeate had £1,700 in his bank account and a further sum of $1,300.

The value of the dollars would need to be ascertained at the final POCA hearing but it currently gives Skeate more than £2,800 of available cash.

The next, and what is hoped to be the final, POCA hearing will take place in May.

“We will need some real progress by then,” said the judge.