Urchfont car dealer Jason Wildman has been ordered to pay back £127,443 under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Judge Andrew Barnett, sitting at Salisbury Crown Court on Friday, gave Wildman six months to pay the amount or serve two years’ imprisonment.

Wildman, 39, and his father, John Wildman, were convicted of fraud relating to their garage business, Wildman’s 4x4 in Urchfont, at Winchester Crown Court in February last year.

Jason Wildman, of Park Road, Market Lavington, pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud and received a ten-month suspended sentence and 300 hours of community service.

His father, of High Street, Littleton Panell, pleaded guilty to 18 charges of fraud between November 2006 and June 2008 and was sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment.

A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing against John Wildman was adjourned to December 6.

The offences came to light when Alan Heather, the owner of Horseshoe Properties, who had supplied Wildmans with vehicles on a sale or return basis, discovered they had been sold to finance companies without his knowledge and without him having received any payment, estimated at £171,000.

The police found that two finance companies had paid funds to the Wildmans against a number of vehicles after they produced forged invoices showing them as the owners.