A fraudster who swindled the pension scheme of a charity out of more than £250,000 has been ordered to pay back the money he stole.

Patrick McLarry, 72, from Bere Alston, Devon, defrauded the pension scheme of Yateley Industries for the Disabled, a charity set up to support vulnerable adults.

Mr McLarry spent the stolen cash on a home and a warehouse in the south of France, a house in Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, and to repay money he owed for the purchase of a pub lease in Portsmouth.

Mr McLarry, chief executive of the charity, was given a five-year jail sentence at Winchester Crown Court in February.

Subsequently The Pensions Regulator used the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to secure a confiscation order against him.

At Salisbury Crown Court last week Judge Recorder James Waddington QC ordered Mr McLarry to pay £286,852 to the Yateley Industries for the Disabled Pension Scheme, to compensate members for the sums he stole, adjusted for inflation.

The defendant has to pay the amount in full within three months. If he fails to pay the judge has ordered him to serve an additional three-year prison term and he will still be required to pay the money back to the scheme.

He was also ordered to pay £71,477 to cover TPR’s legal costs.

Erica Carroll, TPR’s director of enforcement, said: “McLarry abused his position to steal money from the scheme’s members, money which was supposed to help pay for their retirement. Instead, he spent the money on himself.

“He received a lengthy jail sentence for his crime and quite rightly he must now return the money he stole back to the pension scheme for the benefit of its members. If he fails to hand over the cash, he will have to serve an extra three years in jail and still have to pay up.

“TPR will not flinch from using every weapon in our arsenal to tackle pension fraudsters and will continue to protect savers’ retirements.”

At the time of the fraud, Mr McLarry was the chief executive and chairman of the charity and a director of VerdePlanet Limited, the corporate trustee of the charity’s pension scheme.