A fuel company boss who made more than £3 million from supplying cocaine has been ordered to repay a mere fraction - and will be selling his Rolex and Cartier watches to do so.

Michael Wheaton was jailed for 11 years in March last year for his "leading role" in directing and organising the sale of a commercial quantity of the class A drug.

At the time h​is sentence​ was imposed at Canterbury Crown Court, his family ​gasped in the public gallery and brand​ed the punishment "a joke"​ as he sat in the dock shaking his head.

But despite the same court being told on Thursday (March 20) during confiscation proceedings that his benefit from the illicit enterprise was as much as £3,021,409, he was only ordered to pay back a little over £57,000 - less than 2%.

His lawyer, Kevin Walsh, said the sum would come from £10,000 cash already seized by police, ​and the rest from "watches he is going to have to sell".

Dad of three Wheaton, who appeared in court via a link with HMP Lowdham Grange near Nottingham, was given three months to pay.

If he defaults, he faces having to serve another 18 months behind bars.

The sum to be handed over - £57,125 - is the total amount available from realisable assets.

Wheaton, of London Road, Ditton, had denied conspiracy to supply cocaine but was found guilty by a jury following a trial.

Jurors heard the then 41-year-old was linked to the illegal operation after ​police stopped a drugs courier on the coastbound carriageway of the M20 near Ashford in January 2019 and ​found cocaine weighing 1.5kg with a street value of approximately £100,000.

Wheaton, who ran a diesel supply business, was arrested after police downloaded data from the courier's phone and saw it had been in frequent contact with a pay-as-you-go ​mobile.

​With that device having been linked to Wheaton through cell​ site data and ANPR cameras, he admitted the phone was his but said he shared it with others.

​Although the sentencing judge did not accept the prosecution's assertion that Wheaton had used his company as a cover for the drug dealing operation, it was said that a cash business bringing in about £6,500 a week provided evidence that funds were available to buy quantities of cocaine.

The businessman had been previously jailed in 2014 for 28 months for his involvement in a cannabis smuggling operation that spanned Spain and the UK, and in 2011 he had been sentenced to two-and-a-half years' imprisonment for possessing cocaine with intent to supply.

It was said by his barrister at the conclusion of his trial last year that the married, family man had turned his life around and, as well as running a successful business, provided care for his cancer-stricken father.

But on imposing the 11-year jail term, Recorder Paul Taylor KC had told Wheaton there would have been a "substantial" reduction in his sentence had he owned up to his criminality and not faced a five-year wait for his trial.

“The evidence shows you were a director and organiser of this drugs operation. There is no evidence to indicate anyone was directing you. I find you played a leading role in this offence,” the judge remarked.

"It has to be said you could have admitted this matter straightaway. It would not have taken so long to come to court and there would have been a substantial reduction ​in your sentence.

"Therefore, I am not prepared to reduce the sentence for that reason of delay."

​Although Wheaton has now been told he only has to repay £57,000 of his multi-million pound benefit, he will be liable to future court orders being made under the Proceeds of Crime Act if he were to come into further money.