A SENIOR fraud analyst who was jailed for plundering tens of thousands of pounds from a firm in Trowbridge faces the prospect of having to sell his house, after he was ordered to pay compensation to his former employers.

Although Ian Parish benefitted from crime to the tune of £37,613.86 he only has realisable assets worth £15,433.13, a court was told.

That sum was calculated as being half of the equity in the marital home he owns along with his wife.

If the 40-year-old fails to hand over the money in the next three months he will face a nine-month jail term.

Maria Delapp, a police financial investigator, told a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at Swindon Crown Court on Tuesday (nov 29) they valued his house at £113,000. According to online research he was still paying off a mortgage of about £87,000, she said.

Judge Peter Blair QC ordered him to repay the money in three months or face the jail sentence in default.

Parish was jailed for eight months in February after he abused his position as a senior fraud investigator at Virgin Media's Trowbridge office to pay himself refunds.

His five years of crime was only found out when a boss was testing out new accounting software and found an unauthorised transaction.

Parish would normally have been asked to investigate, but he was off on leave at the time, and a colleague given the task found out he was on the take.

It was discovered that Parish, who now lives in Yeovil, had made 139 refunds to an his account.