A businessman who grew £200,000 worth of cannabis in a secret underground bunker in Shaldon has been ordered to repay just £32,600 under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Steven Loveridge built high walls around the grow site and employed a friend with a fierce guard dog to keep inquisitive visitors away.

The underground bunker was built using 275 tonnes of concrete. It was invisible from ground level and only accessible through a secret staircase which ran into a buried shipping container.

He spent thousands of pounds installing a high-tech hydroponic system which accelerated the growth of his 136 plants to the point where they were capable of producing a harvest worth £94,000 every four months.

The land had been used for keeping horses before Loveridge started his cannabis farm and he used the high walls of the old stable block to conceal what he was doing.

Loveridge, aged 41, of Langford Crescent, Torquay, was jailed for six years at Exeter Crown Court in January 2016 after he admitted conspiracy to supply cannabis.

He was brought back to the same court under the Proceeds of Crime Act, where Judge David Evans was told that Loveridge’s remaining assets amount to just £33,600.

The Judge set the amount by which Loveridge had benefited from crime as £200,000 and the available amount as £33,600.

He ordered him to repay the money within three months or spend an extra year in jail.

Mr Peter Coombes, prosecuting, and Mr Ian Kelcey, defending, said they had reached an agreed figure for the amount available for compensation.

Loveridge’s only asset is the parcel of land at Shaldon where he built his cannabis farm. It is to be sold to raise the money. The deadline for payment may be extended if he cannot sell the land in time.

A previous hearing was told that Loveridge had other assets but he had fallen victim to a scam in which he was ripped off by a bogus Bitcoin dealer from Somerset.

Loveridge was a former builder who had just started a recycling business in Clyst St Mary, East Devon and Avonwick, near Totnes, when he was sent to jail.