VICTIMS of a major housing scam are set to receive compensation after being mis-sold buy-to-let properties in Burnley and Pendle.

Profits from a fraud involving 21 refurbishment properties across the two boroughs were estimated at nearly £602,000, a judge at Manchester Crown Court heard.

But a financial hearing was told that former estate agent Raymond Abramson and ex-financial advisor Mark Lenton Jopson only have assets of around £93,000.

Judge David Stockdale ordered Jopson, 44, of Quarry Street, Padiham, must pay £42,000 within six months, or face 16 months in jail in default.

Abramson, 70, of Hampstead Drive, Whitefield, was ordered to pay £52,000, or face an 18-month prison term. Jopson and Abramson have already served three-year and 31-month prison sentences respectively after admitting fraud conspiracy charges.

Det Con John Lonsdale, of Greater Manchester Police’s ecomonic crime section, said: “The judge ordered that any money recovered from the defendants would be paid to the victims in compensation.

“It will only be a proportion of what they actually lost but it wll be some recompense for their losses.”

The majority of those caught up in the scam were investors from Eire, tempted by the lure of cheaper property and the promise of easy rental returns.

But the venture began to unravel when promised refurbishments were either not completed or sub-standard, or promised regeneration grants failed to materialise.

In a previous hearing one victim, Christopher Little, told how he had paid £58,000 for a property in Harvey Street, Nelson.

But despite promises of refurbishments and guaranteed tenants, months later he was told by builders he would need to pay £16,500 to bring the house up to basic standards.

Later it emerged that Abramson was an undischarged bankrupt. Victims were often left with empty and vandal-plagued homes.

More than £1million was alleged to have been moved through the defendants’ operation – but their lawyers insisted this represented a turnover figure, rather than outright profits.