A BT engineer who harvested cash from telephone boxes has been ordered to repay more than £100,000 of his ill-gotten gains.

John Gleave, 54, is believed to have made £208,852 stealing from kiosks in Blackburn, Bury and Middlewich.

Gleave worked as a grinder for BT, opening faulty cash boxes at kiosks to inspect them and report the fault.

If there was any money in the cash box, he was supposed to deposit it.

But his employers noticed a higher than average number of thefts from phone boxes reported by Gleave and launched an investigation.

He was placed under surveil-lance and was seen going into kiosks in full working order with cash inside.

He would then open the lock, take out the cash box and replace it with an empty container.

He then repaired the lock, which was not broken in the first place.

Gleave would then report that the nature of the fault was that it had been broken into and the cash box and contents had been stolen.

He was arrested in May 2007 and, when his home in Gleaves Road, Eccles, was searched, police found a coin counting machine and £615 in coins.

Gleave was jailed in June 2009 for 14 months after pleading guilty at Bolton Crown Court to three charges of theft and one of money laundering.

Yesterday he was ordered to liquidate his assets and pay back £105,135.