THREE men who used a letting agency as a cover for a network of cannabis farms have been ordered to hand over more than £1 million or face more time behind bars.

In April last year at Bolton Crown Court brothers Hanif and Bilal Valli and their friend Zameer Qayume were jailed for a total of more than 18 years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to produce cannabis.

And this week they were back before the Honorary Recorder of Bolton Judge Timothy Clayson for a proceeds of crime hearing in order to strip them of the cash they made as a result of their activities.

Hanif Valli, aged 35, of Newbrook Road, Over Hulton, who has been imprisoned for seven years, was found to have benefited from his crime to the amount of £620,000. Financial investigators discovered he owns properties in Bolton and has cash in his bank account so he must hand over £620,000 within three months or serve a further five years in jail.

Qayume, aged 34, of Longfield Road, Bolton, who is serving a prison sentence of four years and two months, was ordered to pay £380,000, the same sum he was found to have acquired from his crime, within three months or spend another three years in prison. It was revealed he owns properties in Bolton and Oxford.

Bilal Valli, aged 34, of Newbrook Road, Over Hulton, is also serving a seven-year prison sentence. But the court accepted that he does not have realisable assets to pay back the £140,000 he benefited from as the three properties he owns are in negative equity and so he must hand over just £12.28 within 28 days or spend another 28 days in jail.

A spokesman for the police financial investigators said: "It has taken a long time to get there but it is an excellent result."

The proceeds of crime hearing followed the conviction of the three men, who used Global Estates in St Helens Road, which has been set up by Hanif Valli and Qayume, to organise their cannabis production operation.

The three set up a network of farms in residential properties throughout the Bolton area, installing Vietnamese 'gardeners' to care for the crops.

But police became suspicious when they raided several properties and discovered that they had all been handled by Global Estates.

A total of 1,750 cannabis plants, worth an estimated £700,000, were found in eight properties and cannabis growing equipment in a ninth between October 31, 2011 and September 14, 2012. Even a flat above the Global Estates office was used to grow the plants.

The men created false tenancy agreements for non-existent people who were apparently renting the properties. These were mostly people purporting to be from overseas and fake documents were created to support their tenancy agreements.

The Valli brothers and Qayume tried to claim they had become involved in cannabis farming because of threats and assaults from an unnamed group of Chinese men.

But Judge Clayson dismissed their accounts as 'ridiculous' and described their excuses as 'wholesale lying'.