Van Nguyen, 28, allowed his bank account to be used to process a total of £681,000 over a three-and-a-half year period.

Much of the cash was subsequently transferred out of the country to accounts in Vietnam, prosecutor Lindsay Cox told Ipswich Crown Court on Monday.

The £153,077 that remained in the UK has since disappeared and police have so far been unable to trace it.

Mr Cox said that extensive inquiries had failed to find any assets in Nguyen's ownership and he was now believed to have just £1 left.

Nguyen, who has managed to get a job in a nail bar, was ordered by Judge David Goodin to hand over £1 or face seven days in prison.

The judge said the ruling did not exclude the possibility of other assets being seized if they could be found in the future.

The court heard that Nguyen had changed his plea to guilty shortly before a jury was due to be sworn in to hear the case against him.

He admitted a charge of conspiracy with others to remove the proceeds of criminal activity from the UK.

The offence spanned the period of February 1, 2004, until August 31, 2007, and involved the use of Nguyen's UK bank account, said Mr Cox.

Nguyen is married to a Vietnamese woman who is a British citizen and the couple had their first baby in July. The couple now live in Copperfield Road, Bow, East London.

Judge Goodin said that in a statement accompanying his guilty plea, Nguyen denied having been involved in the production of cannabis but said he was aware that his bank account was being used to process the proceeds.

Nguyen said he had tried to stop his account being used for that purpose but was told by three other Vietnamese men that he could not stop and related a story to him about a man in a similar position who had been stabbed to death.

In the statement, Nguyen said: "I was scared and I carried on.

"I knew they carried knives. I accept this does not amount to a defence of duress."

Judge Goodin deferred sentencing until October 3 to allow the preparation of a pre-sentence report on Nguyen, who has no previous convictions. He was granted bail until his next court appearance.