A NELSON accountant who pocketed more than £300,000 of his bosses’ cash has been ordered to pay back £118,000.

Father-of-three Stephen Calderbank, 46, now has to sell the £145,000 family home where his three teenage children still live, and also the car he bought with the spoils of his thieving.

He has to hand over the money by July 22 or face another nine months behind bars. Judge Beverley Lunt told him he was liable for the whole £300,000 but his realisable assets at present amounted to £118,040.

A proceeds of crime hearing at Burnley Crown Court was told Calderbank, who has multiple sclerosis, had two Standard Life policies worth £28,000 which would mature when he was 50 and investigators could try to seize that cash as well.

Police are also trying to obtain the £109,000 equity in the family home in Hallam Road, Nelson. The court earlier heard that the defendant’s wife died intestate last January and her share in the jointly owned property would not go to the children.

Calderbank was recently jailed for two years and two months after admitting 20 counts of theft and asking for 18 offences to be considered.

The court had been told how the defendant, who claims memory loss, had blown about £90,000 on his house and a Kia car but could not explain what happened to the rest of the money.

Calderbank had worked for Skills Solutions, Manchester, a Government-backed organisation which supports apprenticeships, when he stole the money between September 2004 and January 2008.

After the case, financial investigator Charles Hilton said: "Over a period of several years Calderbank methodically stole hundreds of thousands of pounds from his employers, the very people paying his wages.

"His sole motivation was greed but thanks to the Proceeds of Crime Act, he will not profit from this.

"I am delighted that we have once again been able to use this legislation to recover some of the money he stole."