Thousands lost to Lee Rigby fraudster

A FRAUDSTER who failed to hand over more than £20,000 raised for the son of murdered soldier Lee Rigby has been ordered to pay back a little over £3,000 in compensation.

Gary Gardner was jailed for two and a half years in September for two counts of fraud committed in the three years after the fusilier’s murder in 2013.

The 56-year-old lorry driver used some of the £20,250 to “prop up” his overdrawn bank account and to make a charity single he “knew would be a flop”.

He put on truck-pull events in the Leicestershire villages of Medbourne and Market Harborough, and Stroud, Gloucestershire, which were attended by thousands of people including Fusilier Rigby’s widow and son Jack.

At a five-minute Proceeds of Crime Act hearing yesterday, Leicester Crown Court was told Gardner still benefited from £18,318.89 from the Jack Rigby Charitable Trust, but he was only ordered to pay the sum of his assets which was £3,247.53.

Judge Philip Head told Gardner: “I am told you have assets in the sum of £3,247.53 and I make a confiscation order for that amount.

“You have three months in which to pay it... you will serve a further two months in prison if you do not.”

The judge insisted Gardner, of Old Holt Road, Medbourne, Leicestershire, pay all funds in compensation to the Jack Rigby Charitable Trust.

After Gardner was jailed in September, Fusilier Rigby’s widow Rebecca said a further trial was like reliving the earlier court case.

Fusilier Rigby was killed in London by Islamist extremists. He was married in West Yorkshire and served for a time in North Yorkshire.