A ‘PROFESSIONAL fraudster’ who made more than half a million pounds from his criminal lifestyle has been told to pay back just over a tenth of it.

Simon Osborne, of Reid Piece, Purton, cheated businesses out of the cash by ordering goods he had no intention of paying for, leaving the other companies out of pocket.

And the 51-year-old, who was jailed for three years and four months, also hired a mechanical digger which he didn’t pay for and then failed to return.

At a hearing under Proceeds of Crime Act this week, a judge was told he had benefitted from crime to the tune of £543,808.37.

But he only has to repay £56,194 as they are all the realisable assets he has, including gifts he gave to other people.

Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, told Swindon Court Court that £23,000 of the cash to be repaid was sitting in bank accounts which had been frozen by the court when he was arrested.

She said Osborne and his wife had now both signed disclaimers allowing the money to be confiscated.

The defendant will have to raise the rest of the money himself in the next six months or face a further 15 months added to his jail term.

And even if he does serve the extra time, he will still owe whatever is outstanding.

Mike Pulsford, defending, said around half of the money his client had to pay was ‘tainted gifts’, where he had given the cash to others.

Judge Douglas Field ruled he benefitted from crime by £543,808.37 and ordered he repay £56,194 within six months or receive a further 15-month jail term.

Last summer Osborne pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud and one of theft and asked for 18 other matters to be taken into consideration.

In late 2007 and early 2008 he ordered a consignment of toys from one company and a log splitter worth more than £2,000 from another; none of which he paid for.

He then got more than £26,000 worth of slate as well as other goods worth more than £57,000 from another firm.

In August 2008 he hired a three-ton digger from HSS Hire, but didn’t pay the £6,721 fees and did not return the machinery, which was worth about £35,000.

Then in the summer of 2009, when he was bankrupt, he forged the letter from the administrator to get cash from his frozen account.

Having got the banker’s draft from the Halifax, he then cashed it at the Cheque Centre, in Canal Walk.

The court heard that Osborne had a long history of offending including theft and fraud and last received a jail term in 2004.

At the time of jailing him, Judge Field said: “You are a professional fraudster and you are a very dishonest man.”