Rigby trust fraudster ordered to repay £3,000

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 2013, 2014 and 2015 in the Leicestershire villages of Medbourne and Market Harborough, and Stroud, Gloucestershire, which were attended by thousands of people, including Fusilier Rigby’s widow, Rebecca, 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 Medbourne, Leicestershire, pays all funds in compensation to the Jack Rigby Charitable Trust before concluding the short hearing.

After Gardner was jailed in September, Fusilier Rigby’s widow, Rebecca, said a further trial was like reliving the earlier court case, adding: “I feel disgusted about Mr Gardner not making good his promises with regard to my son and abusing my family name.”