A man found guilty of running a fake goods business online has been ordered to hand back three quarters of a million pounds of illicit earnings – or face a further five years in prison.

Gregory William Whitehead, 50, most recently of Tregrehan Hill, St Austell, was jailed for 32 months last August and William Thomas Lemoyne, 37, formerly of Trevenson Street, Camborne, but now living in France, was handed a two year suspended sentence.

Both had pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply counterfeit goods, including fake car accessories, toys and musical instrument accessories.

At a hearing at Truro Crown Court on Monday, Cornwall Council’s Trading Standards Officers successfully secured a proceeds of crime order against the duo as part of the civil process to recover the illegal benefit of their crime.

The court accepted that in total, the business had generated £1.75 million in illegal turnover.

For his part in the operation, former postmaster Whitehead was ordered to pay back £750,000 or face a further five years imprisonment. Lemoyne was ordered to pay back £1,300.