THE "mastermind" behind a huge mobile phone VAT scam has been ordered to pay back more than £26 million.

Craig Johnson, aged 35, was jailed for 10-and-a-half-years and disqualified from being a company director for 14 years after being convicted in 2006 of cheating the revenue and conspiring to furnish false accounting information.

He was one of 21 criminals, 13 from North Staffordshire, who were put behind bars for their involvement in frauds which robbed the taxpayer of £138 million.

Johnson, pictured, who lived in Meaford Hall, a £3 million, eight-bedroom mansion near Stone, was yesterday found by Wolverhampton Crown Court to have benefited from the scam to the tune of £167,724,282.61.

Judge John Warner ruled Johnson's identifiable assets were £26,060,383.17, which must now be paid back within two years, including a payment of £8 million in 12 months' time.

If Johnson fails to pay the entire balance within two years, he faces 10 years' imprisonment.

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Receivers will now be brought in to realise Johnson's assets, which were described in court as being "all over the world".

Among vehicles owned by Johnson were a Ferrari F355 Berlinetta, two jet skis, 10 quad bikes and a helicopter.

The Sentinel reported in September how Johnson was eventually caught out by Operation Emersed, which was led by HM Revenue and Customs.

The operation was launched in 2001 and led to 12 people being jailed for a total of 75 years. The scam, which resulted in two trials at Wolverhampton Crown Court, involved the importation of mobile phones from various EU countries, VAT free, or a paperwork trail which suggested the imports had taken place.

It took place over three months, with dishonest profits being laundered through various bank accounts as far afield as Gibraltar and Hong Kong.

The first trial, which finished on June 12, 2006, saw Johnson, who headed Signal Telecom, convicted of cheating the revenue and conspiring to furnish false accounting information. He, with others, organised the importation of phones from associate operating companies, or the paperwork trail to make it appear so, in other EU countries to UK companies.

The importer, known as a buffer company, would sell them to further traders. The first trader, the apparent importer, would go missing without paying VAT.

Steven Lipinski, aged 27, of Essex, who was jailed for six years and banned from being a company director for eight years by a jury in 2006 for his part in the scam, was ordered to pay back £372,540 on Monday after it was ruled he benefited by more than £27 million.

Linda Wragg, aged 44, from Hanchurch House, Trentham Park, Hanchurch, who owned First For Fones, who would sell phones to Signal Telecom, was convicted of cheating the revenue and conspiring to furnish false accounting information.

She was jailed for six-and-a-half years and banned from being a company director for eight years.

She is expected to learn how much she will have to repay to the authorities on Monday.