An agent who tried to keep his failing business going by conning over £450,000 from clients has been stripped of his assets.

Donald Scott, 62, was last year sentenced to five years in prison for fraud. He spent most of the money defrauded from seven victims on satisfying court judgements.

Carlisle Crown Court was told that Scott had assets of just £67,000.

Judge Peter Hughes ordered him to hand over the money within three months or face a further year in prison. All the money will go towards compensating his victims, who between them lost £457,663 over a five year period.

Scott’s firm, Donald Scott Land and Estate Agents, in Wigton, Cumbria, closed in 2015 with the local newspaper reporting that he had been charged with fraud. Last year, he was handed his jail sentence after admitting to 13 counts. One of his victims, a pensioner, lost his life savings of £200,000.