A crooked postmaster who stole hundreds of thousands of pounds from benefits claimants in Borehamwood has been forced to hand back the cash.

Mahesh Patel, 52, is serving four years behind bars for cashing bogus welfare claims belonging to single parents, pensioners and disabled people as part of a national fraud ring.

He worked at the town's main post office in Shenley Road, where he claimed 2,159 benefit cheques worth £278,707 between November 2001 and July 2003.

Until he was jailed for conspiracy to defraud in November, father-of-two Patel lived in a seven-bedroom house in East Lane, Wembley.

Judge Neil Stewart, who presided over the confiscation proceedings at Southwark Crown Court last Friday, said he accepted the Crown's assertion that Patel was involved in every aspect of the fraud.

During the trial, prosecutor Andrew Evans told jurors that the fraudulent orders had originated from order books sent by the Department for Work and Pensions to post offices for collection by customers.

"But the customers never received them," said Mr Evans.

"Instead, the orderbooks were intercepted and orders which they contained were subsequently processed at Borehamwood Post Office as if they had been properly presented by customers for encashment, whereas in fact they had not.

"Many of them would have suffered considerable distress and hardship as a result of the delay caused to the recipient of their benefit payments."

Southwark Crown Court heard the devout Hindu had a reputation for being generous beyond his means' and regularly donated large sums to his local temple.

Patel insisted bogus claimants had targeted his busy post office as an easy way to commit a fraud. He was convicted after a second trial last November and now stands to loose all the money he made from the scam.

Jurors acquitted Patel's two sons, Pratik, 23, and Kunal, 19, and a nephew, Aopit, 18, of any involvement in the scam. They had worked free of charge' as counter clerks at the post office at the time of the conspiracy.

Patel's assets will be assessed at a second hearing on February 27 when a final confiscation figure will also be announced.