Conman ordered to sell homes and repay his victims

THE MASTERMIND of an international scam must sell his homes in York and Essex to pay back nearly £800,000 to victims.

The complex fraud, which stretched from Britain to Spain, Gibraltar and Tenerife, was uncovered by North Yorkshire Police more than a decade ago.

Paul Blanchard, 73, was sentenced in 2008 to six-and-a-half years in jail for his part in the scam, which included an audacious attempt to steal £4.3m from a London-based bank before transferring the cash to a Spanish account.

Blanchard, of St Oswald’s Court, Fulford, York, appeared before Teesside Crown Court on Monday, where he was made subject to a Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation order in the sum of £1,026,887 which will be settled from the sale of properties in York and Essex, as well as a highvalue personalised registration number. If he fails to carry out the order in three months, he faces another five-year term in jail.

The court also made compensation orders totalling £793,438 in respect of the victims, who will be paid out of the confiscation money.

Ramona Senior, the head of the North-East Regional Asset Recovery Team, said it proved that “delays only put off the inevitable”.

She said: “I am delighted that this long-running case has finally been brought to a conclusion, particularly as 80 per cent of the funds confiscated will be used to recompense Blanchard’s victims.”

If Blanchard fails to realise his assets, enforcement receivers would be appointed who would sell them “irrespective of cooperation on his part”.

Blanchard, who had convictions for fraud dating back 30 years, also oversaw a £375,000 money-laundering operation and an attempt to obtain a British passport under a false name for a Moldovan woman.

He was jailed after being convicted along with five other men and a woman at Sheffield Crown Court in 2008.