A Shropshire conman who made more than £600,000 through his criminal lifestyle was today ordered to pay back more than half of the cash – or face more time in jail.

Paul Rye, 47, formerly of Belvidere Lane, Shrewsbury, appeared before Shrewsbury Crown Court today and was ordered by the judge to pay back a total of £345,576.42 or face four years in prison.

The court heard Rye had previously been sentenced for preying on elderly people by selling them pies and eggs and lying about where they had come from. Judge Robin Onions today heard the enterprise had netted Rye a total of £605,694.12.

Rye had also previously admitted charges of fraud and obtaining money transfer by deception. The court today heard that the Department of Work and Pensions had called for compensation of £24,890.28.

Judge Onions said: “You will recall that as part of your mitigation it was accepted by you that you would lose all the money you have obtained over the years from your dishonest activity.

“The order of the court is now agreed. The figure you obtained was £605,694.12 that was as a result of your criminal lifestyle.”

In February last year, Rye was given an 18-month conditional discharge after admitting 16 charges of breaching trade descriptions and two charges of making false trade descriptions.

Mike Davies, prosecuting, said he told customers the pies contained meat hand-reared on his family’s farm, when they were machine-produced and bought from a bakery in Telford.

In June this year Rye was jailed for five years after admitting fraud charges.

The charges involved Rye falsely claiming benefit over five years after telling the DWP he was earning less and working fewer hours than he actually was.