A ‘RUTHLESS serial fraudster’ behind a £250,000 legal aid scam, has been ordered to pay back ill-gotten gains to the tune of £1.3million.

‘Professional career criminal’ Mohammed Khatana, 51, faced a Proceeds of Crime hearing at Burnley Crown Court, along with his daughter Mahria Khatana, 24, who he was said to have used to carry out the con.

Khatana, of Hawkswood Gardens, Brierfield, is currently behind bars for eight and a half years, after pleading guilty to 15 charges of fraud.

He claimed he had nothing to show from his law breaking but was said to have concealed assets and had a bank account in Pakistan.

Khatana and his daughter, of the same address, were both arrested after a three-year investigation by organised crime police.

Mahria Khatana had pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud when she and her father had earlier appeared at Preston Crown Court.

She had been given 12 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, with supervision and was ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work. She was said to have benefitted by £146,800.07 and was ordered to hand over £15,000.

The court had been told how Khatana had been running two companies, POCA Consulting Ltd, which had a website and was advertised in Inside Times, the prison journal, and Ultima Consulting, which offered legal representation to people, despite having no legal qualifications or accreditation.

Mohammed Khatana would visit clients and arrange to transfer their legal aid to his firm, charging an extra £500 for the referral.

The court heard on one occasion he had defrauded a pensioner who was facing confiscation proceedings for money laundering. Mahria Khatana got quotes for legal representation from barristers' chambers in London, doubled the quotes and sent the man a £43,000 bill, even though the fee should have cost less than £10,000.

In April last year, Khatana, described by police as a ‘ruthless serial fraudster’, was also found guilty by a jury of attempting to enter into a money laundering arrangement. An undercover police officer, posing as the wife of a drug dealer, had met Khatana and had been given advice on how to launder drugs cash.

In his written judgement at the end of the Proceeds of Crime Hearing, Judge Graham Knowles,QC, made a confiscation order against Khatana in the sum of £1,356,259.70.

The pair were given six months to pay. Khatana will serve six extra years in prison in default if he does not pay up and his daughter will serve nine months if she does not pay the £15,000.