A BUSINESSMAN who swindled more than £100 million in Britain’s biggest ever tax fraud has been jailed for another ten years.

Michael Richards was one of five co-conspirators to be convicted of cheating the public revenue in 2017.

The environmental scientist was ordered to pay back £11 million of his ill-gotten gains from a fake ‘green’ investment scheme, which saw celebrities conned out of £107 million.

The 59-year-old used his share of the money to purchase a house in East Sussex.

As a result, the former Oxbridge student has had ten years added to his 11-year prison sentence he is serving.

The group - all of whom went to either Oxford or Cambridge universities - laundered the proceeds of the scam around the world, hiding funds in accounts across China, the British Virgin Islands, Greece and Switzerland.

The fraudsters used their former positions as conductors of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, a solicitor and merchant banker, to convince wealthy investors the money would be spent on research and development into carbon credits.

They attracted more than £65 million in investment in the scheme, but only £16 million of this was spent on planting trees.

Instead, the group stole £20 million of the investors’ money, with Michael Richards spending his share on a £2.7m house in East Sussex and a property in Dubai, as well as £32,000 on jewellery.

A total of 730 investors signed up to the scheme, including celebrities such as comedians, sports stars and relatives of politicians.

Two years after their conviction, the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division successfully applied to the court for Richards to pay back just under £10m, which rose to £11.1 million with interest.

After paying back just over £30,000, the Crown Prosecution Service took him to court again for not paying the full amount and asked for an additional prison sentence to be activated.

At Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, the request was granted, and his original sentence was nearly doubled.

Adrian Foster, head of the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, said: “We worked with HMRC to make sure he did not benefit from the proceeds of his crime, but he has only paid back a paltry amount.

“Even when fraudsters are convicted and sentenced the CPS will continue to pursue them for the money they owe, or they risk remaining in prison for many more years.”

Richards was originally sentenced to a total of 11 years in jail and disqualified from being a company director.

Fellow fraudster Evdoros Demetriou, 82, had nine years added onto his six-year prison sentence in July, after failing to pay back £4.6 million.

In total, all five offenders were told to repay £20.6 million, the CPS said.

Robert Gold, 53, was sentenced to 11 years in prison and banned from being a company director.

Rodney Whiston-Dew, 70, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and disqualified from being a company director.

Jonathan Anwyl, 47, was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail.