FRAUDSTER Terence Broad has been ordered to pay back £244,522 of ill-gotten gains in four months – or face three more years in prison.

The 66-year-old, pictured, was jailed for 16 months in December, 2010 for his part in a 13-strong £17 million fraud.

It followed a five-year investigation by customs investigators into a 'missing trader' mobile phone VAT fraud.

The operation involved investigations in China, Taiwan, India, Italy, Denmark, Germany and Belgium.

The gang's conspiracy involved the importation of mobile phone accessories and electronic media, including memory and SIM cards, from the European Union.

The goods were recorded as being sold a number of times along a contrived supply chain before being exported back to the EU.

The exporter would then claim a VAT credit from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), even though they had never paid the tax in the first place.

The gang used the proceeds of their crime to buy items, including several UK properties worth more than £1 million each, performance cars including a Rolls-Royce Phantom for £250,000 and a Ferrari for £165,000, and a property in Spain valued at more than £1 million.

In this investigation, Broad and another man ran the logistics and freight side of the fraud.

They used their premises to convince the HMRC that goods were being inspected by them; only for the investigators to find there were no goods at all.

As well as the jail term, Broad, who admitted conspiring to cheat the public revenue at Southwark Crown Court, was also banned from being a company director for four years.

Now Broad, of Bemersley Road, Brown Edge, has returned to the court to receive a confiscation order on the £244,522.

Following yesterday's sentence, HMRC investigator Gary Lampon said: "We are holding confiscation hearings to recoup the money this gang stole and return it to the nation.

"This was a complex and lengthy investigation, as it took more than five years to unravel this multi-million pound fraud by an organised crime gang.

"They used the money to fund extravagant lifestyles at the expense of the British taxpayer.

"Missing trader fraud is not merely a paper fraud, it funds other serious crime and we are determined to pursue and bring to justice the criminals behind this type of fraud."

Searches of the defendants' properties revealed the gang planned to steal an additional £300 million of VAT.