A drug dealer who hid cocaine inside a Peppa Pig tea set designed to look like a child's birthday present was ordered to pay back half a million pounds on Monday.

Paul McNulty, 51, was caught with £1.2kg of the drug worth around £120,000 in the boot of his Audi when he was stopped by police near Bristol.

The stash was hidden inside a "Peppa Pig" plastic tea set, inside a cardboard wrapper, covered in brown parcel tape, which was together with a birthday card.

Police said it was designed to give the appearance of an unopened gift for a child.

McNulty's fingerprints were on the inside of the cardboard packaging, on the outside handle of the box and on the shopping carrier bag it was in.

Police raided his home in Liverpool and found a total of £422,682 in cash and a further 44,840 Euros.

The money was hidden inside a cooker hood and behind a false skirting board under the stairs.

Also recovered from the address was a cash-counting machine, champagne and a Rolex watch.

McNulty admitted conspiracy to supply a class A drug and also of concealing criminal property and was jailed for seven years in January last year.

The crook, currently in HMP Liverpool, was ordered yesterday to repay £523,310 - including the money seized - and given three months to do it.

Failure could result in a further sentence of five years in prison when he completes his current prison term.

Dr Kirstie Cogram of Avon and Somerset Police's Financial Investigation Unit said: "We are committed to seizing any assets that criminals have gained as a result of crime.

"It is not acceptable that criminals benefit from illegal activities and we will relentlessly pursue them through the courts to ensure their money is taken.

"By doing this we show criminals that they will not benefit from crime and hopefully deter others from entering a life of crime."