A CAREER criminal serving nine years in prison for 101 distraction burglaries has been told to increase the amount he must pay back to £125,000, after an extra stash of money was found.

William Vinson posed as a new neighbour, a council worker and an electricity board inspector to target elderly people aged between 79 and 94 across the south and Midlands.

The 62-year-old was jailed at Oxford Crown Court in 2012 after he admitted 11 burglaries and asked for a further 90 to be taken into consideration by a judge.

Sometimes using the pseudonym Dave Knight, Vinson conned people in Southmoor, Checkendon, Stoke Row and Great Haseley, often posing as a neighbour needing change to pay a plumber.

Passing sentence Judge Anthony King called the defendant “despicable” and said he had carried out a “deliberate campaign that continued week after week”.

Vinson, who at the time was living in Cotswold Terrace, Chipping Norton, was found to have made a total “benefit” of £148,136.08 from his crimes, which were carried out over two years.

Following an investigation by Thames Valley Police into his assets he was told by Judge Patrick Eccles to pay back more than £112,000 or face a further two-and-a-half years in jail.

It was agreed at a hearing in June 2012 that this money would come from the sale of a mortgage-free house in Hill View Crescent, Banbury, Vinson shared with his son Craig.

But at a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing on Thursday prosecutor Jonathan Seely said financial investigators had now found a further £20,000, which had previously not been declared.

He told Judge Eccles officers had discovered the money was being held on Vinson’s behalf by a firm of solicitors based in Peterborough.

Mr Seely said this meant the prosecution was now suggesting a “revised recoverable amount” of £132,000.

But James McCrindell, defending, said Vinson’s property “was not sold for as much as predicted” and the new figure should be lower. He argued that because his client had only received £100,000 from the sale of the house, the recoverable amount should be set at £120,000.

Judge Eccles set the repayment amount at £125,000 and said he would give Vinson 28 days to pay, with a six-month extension of his sentence if he failed to do so.

Mr McCrindell added: “During his sentence he has been doing his best to make use of all the options available to him. He has been working as a listener and helping others to read.”