A FRAUDULENT accountant who fleeced a woman out of £345,000 has been ordered to pay her back just £1,200.

Leslie Lesser, 78, from High Road, Great Wakering, got Maggie Tuttle, 70, to hand over her life savings in instalments on the promise of 12 per cent interest.

But when she asked for some of it back, Lesser said he had become mentally ill and had no idea what he did with her money.

He was convicted last April of fraudulently obtaining the money from her, between 2006 and 2009, after changing his plea to guilty during a retrial.

It emerged during the case he had used Mrs Tuttle’s cash to clear personal debts and buy premium bonds.

He also admitted five other counts of credit card and insurance fraud.

On Friday, he appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court for a Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation hearing where the Crown Prosecution Service revealed he only had two assets left –a£1,200 Land Rover and a pension worth £5,000.

Money seized usually goes to the crown, but Judge Anthony Goldstaub ordered Lesser to pay Mrs Tuttle the money for the Land Rover within three months by way of compensation.

The CPS also hope to be able to retrieve the £5,000 from the Phoenix Group pension fund and further compensate Mrs Tuttle. Judge Goldstaub said: “It is a very poor amount of compensation for this good lady, but it cannot be helped, I am afraid.

“A close eye can be kept on Mr Lesser and, if it transpires more money can be found, then action can be taken.”

Outside court, Lesser declined to comment.

Speaking to the Echo afterwards, Mrs Tuttle of Carlingford Drive, Southend, said: “It is an absolute insult to only get that amount of money back. I am living on my credit card and that will just pay the interest.”

During the police investigation it emerged Lesser, who once acted as an agent for Legal & General, hadset uplife insurance with the company in Mrs Tuttle’s name.

She has managed to recover £5,000 in premiums from that policy