A father-of-five from the Shropshire/Staffordshire border who profited after murdering his wife in a house fire, must pay back almost £250,000 or face an extra three years behind bars, police said today.

Alan Stead, 43, of Meynell Fields, Loggerheads, near Market Drayton, must pay up by May 28 next year or spend extra time in jail for murdering his wife Anita, 39, at the home they shared in Waterhayes, Newcastle-under-Lyme, in May 2002.

Stead was convicted of murder at Stafford Crown Court in February and told he would have to serve at least 25 years in prison.

He trapped his wife in the garage and started a fire, leaving her to die.

He appeared at the court on Monday for a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Judge Mark Eades confiscated Stead’s new property in Loggerheads, which was paid for with the proceeds of insurance pay-outs from his wife’s death.

He told Stead to repay £245,000, including nearly £83,000 paid to him by Norwich Union under a buildings and contents policy; £43,000 paid to him by Standard Life under a life assurance policy relating to his wife; nearly £41,000 to the Department of Work and Pensions for benefits claimed since his wife’s death and more than £1,000 to Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council.

Stead was also ordered to pay just over £11,000 to each of the four children he had with his late wife Anita, £33,000 will go back into the public purse and the judge awarded just over £8,000 to Bert Whitehead, Anita Stead’s father.