A PENSIONER currently serving a prison sentence for his part in a £6m tax evasion has been told he must pay back £770,000 of his criminal proceeds.

Marcus McKinley, aged 67, formerly of Partridge Drive, Orpington, was jailed for four years along with his son Michael McKinley, 41, in February last year.

Now, following an HM Revenue & Customs investigation, it has emerged McKinley senior has assets worth at least £770,000, including a property in Spain, a Jaguar X-type, a Mazda RX8 convertible and proceeds from the sale of another property in Spain.

At a confiscation hearing at Canterbury Crown Court, he was ordered to pay the money back by July 31 or face a further four years in prison and still owe the money.

HMRC spokesman Bob Gaiger said: "HMRC is determined to seek out and investigate those who commit tax fraud and to pursue the financial gains of those involved in this type of criminality.

"Marcus McKinley now has a choice: pay up now or serve time in jail and still owe the money."

As well as a four-year prison sentence, McKinley senior was disqualified from being a company director for 10 years.

His son Michael McKinley, from Maidstone, received a 12-month jail sentence suspended for two years and was ordered to carry out 300 hours of community service.

He was also disqualified from being a company director for seven years.

Both pleaded guilty to three charges of cheating the public revenue and false accounting.

The McKinleys ran Strandthorpe Building Services Limited and MCK Structural Services Limited in Princess Parade, Locksbottom.

Both businesses are now dissolved.

HMRC investigators found that between 1997 and 2004 the McKinleys had used a false invoicing scheme to conceal the withdrawal of £18m from the bank accounts of the two construction companies.

This scheme enabled the McKinleys to make more than £3m of fraudulent claims for the repayment of VAT and reduce corporation tax liability, while also failing to meet construction industry scheme tax obligations.

In total the tax evasion exceeded £6m.