A BUILDER who was part of a gang which conned more than £1million out of elderly residents has had his monthly compensation payments halved by magistrates.

Van Purdy told Colchester Magistrates’ Court his building business is suffering and no-one is hiring him because he was outed as part of a gang of con artists.

As such, he said, he has no money.

He also claimed the RSPCA took away the horses he traded in, a decision he is challenging in the courts, and so he has no assets.

Magistrates praised him for trying to make payments and allowed him to cut his monthly compensation payments from £200 to £100.

It means even more of his victims are likely to have died before even a slice of what was taken from them is repaid.

Van Purdy was part of a gang who conned an estimated 140 victims, mostly elderly and vulnerable people in north Essex, out of more than £1 million.

About 73 took part in the police investigation and 18 were used to make the Crown Prosecution Service case.

Three of the victims died between conviction and the ordering of compensation.

Van Purdy was convicted of concealing criminal property for his part in the scam and was jailed for two years.

He claimed he did not make a penny out of the con.

He was ordered to pay back £15,309 but only paid back £8,270.

Van Purdy, 62, of Bromley Road, Ardleigh, was then ordered to pay back at a rate of £200 a month from June last year which he did, for four months.

Then he decided to cut his payments to £100 and yesterday was brought before Colchester Magistrates’ Court.

He told the court he does not get any benefits and his partner, who was also involved in the gang and is now a mobile hairdresser in Clacton, is the sole earner.

He said: “I am looking for building work but it is difficult with the publicity we got.”

Chairman of the bench Anthony Ealden said: “It is to your credit when you lost your job you still kept paying your fine.

“The only thing you did wrong was not let the court know.

“If you had let the court know we could do something.”