A DJ jailed for five years for allowing the 'rampant' sale of ecstasy at a Plymouth nightclub has been ordered to pay back nothing.

Thomas Patrick Costelloe (pictured right), the former DJ and general manager of Union Street's Dance Academy, was made the subject of a Proceeds Of Crime Act application.

Under the Act, assets deemed to have come from his crime could be seized and confiscated.

Yesterday, at Plymouth Crown Court, more than two years after Costelloe's conviction, the Crown Prosecution Service came up with a figure.

It revealed the amount of benefit Costelloe had derived from his crime was judged to be £6,600 — the wages he was paid as the club's DJ and general manager at the time.

However, the amount of the confiscation order was nil, as the CPS had not been able to find any assets to confiscate, the court heard.

When Judge Francis Gilbert QC queried whether the amount should not be a nominal £1, so the order could be varied if assets turned up in future, Geoffrey Mercer QC said the CPS was satisfied with Costelloe paying nothing.

Costelloe, 39, from Honiton, was allowed to leave the dock, as he is on home leave from his ongoing jail sentence.

He thanked the judge several times and smiled as he left the court.

Costelloe's former boss, Manoucehr Bahmanzadeh, will have his POCA hearing at the end of the month.

He was jailed for nine years two years ago on the same charge as Costelloe: allowing the supply of Class A drugs at the club.

His hearing is scheduled to last a week.

Both men failed in their appeals to have their convictions overturned.

The Dance Academy closed four years ago when it was raided by police after a huge undercover operation.

Bahmanzadeh, who lived above the club, and Costelloe were both convicted after a trial at Plymouth Crown Court in July 2008.

They were snared after undercover police officers began monitoring the club in December 2005, eventually sending in 140 riot police to raid the premises in May 2006.

Sixteen drug dealers were later prosecuted and jailed for their activities there.

Both men denied allowing the dealing to take place, claiming they did their best to stop it and that the Dance Academy had a 'zero tolerance' drugs policy.

But 21 test purchase officers gave evidence at their trial, and claimed dealing at the club was 'overt and blatant'.

As reported in The Herald, the pair's appeal against their convictions, on the grounds the officers should not have been allowed to testify against them anonymously, was rejected by the Appeal Court in December 2008.