A fraudulent yacht broker from Devon has
been ordered to repay a motorboat owner £35k or face going back to prison after
he sold her vessel and tried to pocket the money.

Christopher Webster of D2 Marine forged
papers for the 24ft Doral Elite 235 and then spent months deceiving the boat’s
owner, telling her it was at his yard in Totnes when it had in fact been
shipped to Spain.

The 55-year-old had been instructed to sell
the woman’s yacht for £43,000 in October 2010, but after it failed to sell she
dropped the price to £36,000 in June 2011.

Mr Webster sold the yacht a month later for
£35,000 and pocketed the money after his business got into financial
difficulty.

He was jailed for 12 months in November
last year after admitting fraud at Exeter Crown Court.

A judge has now ordered Mr Webster to repay
the money or go back to jail for a year after rejecting his claim that he owned
no assets.

Mr Webster returned to court for a hearing after
it was revealed that he owned a share of a flat with his wife, along with
several vehicles.

Judge Cottle said: “In my judgment the
decision to put the flat in Torquay under the name of his wife was not in
pursuance of an agreement between them but a simple attempt to put the property
out of reach of his creditors.

“The defendant says a number of vehicles
were registered in his name for insurance purposes only and he does not own any
of them. In my judgment he has failed to prove this.”  

Mr Webster claims that the cars are owned
by other members of his family and were put under his name so he could insure
them all on one policy.

Judge Cottle has given the defendant six
months to repay the £35,000 and imposed a 12-month jail term in default.

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Pictured: D2 Marine office in Torquay