A SOLICITOR who swindled £759,000 from clients has “not paid back a single penny” of the money he owes – four years after a demand was issued.

Philip Pressler has twice been on holiday since being released from prison and drives a Mercedes.

The 57-year-old, of Key View, Darwen, was sentenced to five years’ prison in August 2004 for the theft of £759,000.

Two years later the Lancashire Telegraph revealed he was being allowed to give advice at a Citizens’ Advice Bureau while on day release from prison.

He appeared at Bolton Magistrates Court yesterday where he was grilled by Crown Prosecution Service Lawyers to find out why he had not repaid any money.

He was told he could return to prison if nothing was paid.

In February 2005, a “confiscation order” was issued for £690,000 to be repaid immediately, the court was told.

But despite some of Pressler’s properties having been sold by receivers, Pressler has “not paid back a single penny” himself, CPS lawyer John Elliott said.

The debt he owes to the Law Society now stands at £470,901, with the victims of the swindle having been compensated.

Pressler told the hearing – a means inquiry – that his wife had left him following his conviction, and he remarried earlier this month. He said his new wife had paid for the wedding.

He said he was currently trying, unsuccessfully, to build a new business and employers had initially been loth to take him on.

Asked why he had not repaid any cash, he said he had never been requested to do so, and not been in a position to do so: “All my assets have been taken into the hands of a receiver,” he said.

Pressler said he bought the 10-year-old Mercedes for £5,000 in January 2008 and said his new wife had paid for trips to Turkey and Rhodes.