Following a Department of Trade & Industry investigation, Christopher Trietline, 58, who was jailed in February 2002, was ordered by Maidstone Crown Court to pay the confiscation order of £181,750 or serve an extra 30 months imprisonment.

Trietline, along with two other directors of the family businesses of Deadman Transport Ltd, Deadman Transport (Midlands) and Deadman Transport and Groupage Ltd, was jailed after a DTI investigation found a 'litany of bounced cheques, broken promises, forged documents and faked invoices to generate cash and present a false picture of the state of the business'.

Trietline was found to have benefited to the tune of £730,100, despite the company having been 'effectively insolvent' resulting in losses of £2m to creditors.

During confiscation hearings in the Canterbury Crown Court, the judge found that the value of horses owned by Trietline's partnerhip - Wainbody Estates - which the court heard had fallen from £400,000 to £4,000 in two years, was not credible.

Competition minister Melanie Johnson said: 'This case shows the DTI's determination to prosecute and track down the proceeds of the activities of commercial fraudsters and place the evidence before the courts for effective action.'