A fraudster from Wolverhampton involved in a £2 million fuel con has been ordered to pay back more than £30,000 or face extra time behind bars.

Jagdevpal Jandu Singh, from Fordhouses, was one of three men ordered to repay a total of £800,000 by a judge at Coventry Crown Court.

The 52-year-old was yesterday told he faced an extra 18 months in prison if he failed to pay within six months.

In 2006, Singh was jailed for two-and-a-half years for customs offences which involved the laundering and distribution of more than four million litres of fuel over an eight-month period.

Officials said today that the plot resulted in the theft of more than £2 million in excise duty and VAT from the taxpayers.

Investigators discovered that red diesel and kerosene, which is intended for agricultural vehicles and is subject to tax rebates, was collected from a licensed distributor by Singh’s gang.

This was before it was laundered or mixed and then sold to the retail market as duty paid road diesel and ultra low sulphur diesel.

In August 2004, 34,000 litres of kerosene were paid for in cash and collected in a number of fuel tankers that were driven by Brian Patrick O’Doherty, aged 52, from Coventry, on behalf of Taz Construction of Derby, a company whose details had been hijacked.

The fuel was then sold on using a bogus company called Mac Oil based in Manchester, operated by others involved in the fraud.

O’Doherty was later intercepted by police on the M6 driving a tanker containing 25,000 litres of illicit fuel.

He was then jailed for five years and was ordered to repay £200,000 yesterday in court.

In March 2005, Customs officers launched raids in the Midlands.

A mixing plant was dismantled and quantities of kerosene and green diesel, which had been filtered in order to remove the marker which shows it is for agricultural use, were seized in Shropshire.

At a Derbyshire warehouse, a fully operating oils laundering plant was dismantled.

Customs officials followed a trail back to Wolverhampton man Singh, of Marsh Lane, who they described as one of the main organisers.

Andrew Pavlinic, assistant chief investigation officer for Customs, said: “The success of our ongoing investigations will ensure vital funds are restored to the nation for investment in public services.

“This highlights that our work does not stop with the sentencing of these major organised crime gangs.

“We will seek to reclaim their criminal profits and put an end to their luxurious lifestyles. This operation was a result of our determined efforts to disrupt and dismantle the illegal supply of fuel.

“Organised crime has a detrimental and harmful effect on all our communities as well as a damaging impact on our environment.”

Damian Mulholland, aged 41, who is form County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, was said to be another of the ringleaders.

Yesterday he was ordered to repay £550,000 within six months or serve a further five years in prison.

He was previously sentenced to six years in prison.