A CONMAN will only have to pay back a fraction of his £683,000 fraud.

Richard Leeson, who ran Basildon-based internet furniture business Pine Online, tricked online payment company PayPal into reimbursing the money to about 3,000 customers after pretending his firm had gone bust.

However, Southend Crown Court heard the 41-year-old could only muster assets worth £205,000 to compensate PayPal.

Judge John Lodge ordered the confiscation of the money, which is largely in the form of a plot of land in the Bahamas.

The judge also pledged to jail Leeson for two-and-a-half years if he does not pay up the cash within six months. However, he conceded it may be necessary to extend that deadline in order to get the best price for the land.

Leeson, of Coltishall, Norwich, lied about the fate of Pine Online in September, 2008 and moved goods which had been legitimately bought by his customers to another warehouse in Rettendon in order to sell them again.

He was jailed for 20 months in April 2010 after pleading guilty to fraud.

Pine Online was set up by Leeson, in Yardley Business Park, Luckyn Lane, Basildon, in 2005.

It sold flat-pack furniture via eBay, which uses PayPal to handle online transactions.

In previous court cases, Leeson was described as a man of “sterling good character” who was regarded very well by business associates. He was married with young children.

Despite early successes, the firm got into financial trouble in August 2008.

The difficulties prompted Leeson, who used to live in Benfleet, to pretend it had ceased to exist overnight.

He e-mailed customers and told them to seek reimbursement from PayPal for the goods they had paid for.

Leeson then immediately left the country. On his return, he was tailed by detectives before being arrested in February last year.

In addition to the jail sentence he was given in April, he was also banned from being a company director for seven years.