A beauty therapist caught with £1.5 million of cocaine stashed within a sophisticated hide in the boot of her car will only have to pay back £41.05.

That was all officers found in her purse when she was stopped in Dartford.

Stephanie Nelson, 31, who once owned a company called Porsche Cosmetics and lived in one of the most sought-after places near Manchester is serving a 10-year sentence.

A financial investigation into her assets concluded she would have netted £10,000 in her illegal dealing - but the money surrendered could barely cover the price of one of the cocktails she enjoyed in luxury hotels and on yachts around the globe.

A court heard two years ago after a National Crime Agency investigation, officers established it was not only beauty treatments that were funding her jet-set lifestyle.

Nelson drover the 250 miles from her home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, to Bearsted.

There she was watched driving her Hyundai iX35 into the car park of The Yeoman pub, Ashford Road, where she met John Markham, aged 53, from Enfield, who was waiting in a white van. She then handed over two black holdalls.

Maidstone Crown Court heard how former nursing student Nelson drove off and was stopped a short time later in the Dartford Tunnel.

A detailed search of the vehicle revealed 15 kg of 83% purity cocaine stamped with 'Premium 20/20' within a sophisticated and magnetised purpose-built hide in the floor of the boot.

Nelson, whose private clinic offers non-surgical cosmetic procedures, was also in possession of a BQ Aquaris encrypted phone described as 'highly sophisticated and virtually impossible' to crack.

Maidstone Crown Court heard last summer how the same Hyundai had been seen driving to Folkestone and waiting in a car park on several occasions leading up to her arrest.

Mum-of-two Nelson, who was five months' pregnant when she was jailed last year, admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Her barrister told the court she was the victim of a controlling and physically abusive ex-partner, who had "persuaded her to collect something" on his behalf.

At the time Christopher Martin, defending, said she neither looked in the bags nor knew what they contained.

"It is no exaggeration to say she was and remains scared of her ex-boyfriend," he added.

But passing sentence, Judge Philip Statman said there was "very little evidence of recent pressure or coercion".

He told Nelson she had embarked on "a deliberate course of conduct for financial gain" which had to be marked by a substantial prison sentence despite the profound impact on both her son and unborn child.

"Believe me when I say it is no easy task for any judge to separate a mother from a child, or indeed sentence on the basis that you will spend the remaining months of your pregnancy and the first years of your unborn child's life when it is born detained in custody.

"I appreciate that has a profound effect both on your unborn child and also on you."

Judge Statman, who described Nelson as a "highly intelligent and good, caring mother", was told her son will be cared for by his grandmother.

He also asked that she was allowed to complete her pregnancy "in the best possible way" and able to remain with her baby "as long as the prison authorities allow".

Markham 's claim he was paid just £106 for the drop-off to Nelson was disputed by the judge however, who said "rich-pickings" awaited all those involved.

He told both defendants: "Individuals such as you need to perform the critical role in ensuring the safe passage of drugs from the coast, through county lines and to the northern part of England.

"You must be highly trusted because the value of this load was vast.

"Cocaine is a highly addictive and pernicious drug. It brings with it misery and degradation to its users.

"The drugs market, if I may say so, is probably as we speak the most powerful, illicit market in the world at the present time.

"Each of you were trusted and no conspiracy of this kind could function without your effective role."

Markham was also found with a similar Aquaris phone.

"They are highly sophisticated, encrypted handsets which contained Dutch SIM cards making it impossible to get into and to get call data from," said Mr Nicholson.

"It is considered extremely unlikely that it will be possible to get any data from these phones.

The court heard however that despite her fear of her former partner, Nelson, who was by this point engaged, was prepared to assist police by giving them the password.

But he told the court her previous partner was controlling and violent.

On one occasion Nelson was said to have suffered a suspected fractured eye socket having been punched in the face.

That relationship eventually ended the year before the drop off, but while she was at work after the break up she was approached, handed the phone, given the password and told her ex-boyfriend would call her.

Describing her role in the drugs operation as "merely a courier", Mr Martin added: "She was ultimately persuaded by him to go and collect something for him.

"She was given a postcode and went and collected the bags. She didn't look inside and didn't know what they contained."

Adam Warnock, NCA Branch Commander, said after the court hearing: “Drug trafficking was Nelson’s passport to a high-rolling lifestyle – an expensive house in Cheshire and exotic holidays all over the world – but it was very high risk and now she is behind bars."

At the confiscation hearing Judge David Griffith-Jones QC was told initially it was believed her benefit was in the hundreds of thousands but lawyers compromised on £10,000 after accepting the earlier figure was as a result of "an error".

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