The Scheme star Marvin Baird has had £3000 confiscated by police in a dirty money seizure.
Unemployed Baird, 40, was forced to hand over the cash after he was stopped and searched by officers in the street.
They took the money under Proceeds of Crime laws after apprehending him in Kilmarnock town centre on Tuesday night.
The recovering addict appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on Thursday, where Sheriff Thomas Ward granted an order under the Proceeds of Crime Act for the cash to be seized.
Police now have three months to carry out a further probe into the source of the money. Baird appeared in court unrepresented and denied the money was illegal.
Sources say he told police he had saved the funds and always carried the cash around with him because he “doesn’t like banks”.
It has also been claimed Baird told police he was on his way to Tesco to buy flowers and a birthday card for his girlfriend.
The source said: “Marvin says he saved the money from his benefit payments.
“He’s told everyone that it was being put aside to decorate his house.
“This is a lot of money for him to lose.”
Baird shot to fame 10 years ago after appearing on BBC documentary The Scheme, which followed the lives of people living in Kilmarnock’s Onthank housing estate.
His on-off relationship with Dayna McLaughlin featured heavily in the series, which was described by some critics as “poverty porn”.
Legal difficulties meant episodes were often postponed but, at its height, it was watched by 840,000 viewers.
Baird became a household name with his “Happy as Larry” catchphrase.
However, he was jailed for six months in 2016 for failing to do a single hour of community service after being caught in possession of a knife.
Baird was put behind bars again for 18 months in 2018 after police smashed down his front door and found him in bed with a woman and 20 wraps of heroin.
A police spokeswoman said: “We can confirm a 40-year-old man was stopped by officers in Dean Street, Kilmarnock, on May 12.
“A quantity of cash was seized from him under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.”
A Crown Office spokeswoman said: “As it’s an ongoing case, we can’t comment at the moment.”
