Harris Polak, a man who defrauded over £200,000 in charitable funds from cancer charities, was ordered to pay back £1,620 this month.

Polak was jailed for three years and nine months in July of last year after admitting to setting himself up as a charity collector and organising cash collectors to fundraise fraudulently on behalf of Clatterbridge Cancer Research Trust, Cerebral Palsy Care for Children and Cancer Relief UK.

Polak failed to declare amounts collected to the charities and kept over £213,000 of the funds raised for himself, though at the time James Rae, prosecuting, told the judge it was likely he took far more.

According to the Liverpool Echo, on Tuesday Polak appeared at Liverpool Crown Court for a proceeds of crime hearing in which it was heard he made £655,227.83.

But all that could be realised in available assets was £1,620 which was the proceeds of the sale of a car and a second-hand computer and printer.

Polak was told to pay back the money within 28 days or face another four weeks behind bars.