A BRADFORD man, who was part of a criminal gang which cloned top of the range stolen cars worth half a million pounds, has been ordered to pay an extra £3,000 at a confiscation hearing.

Reuben Browne was found to have benefited by more than £465,000 from criminal conduct at a previous confiscation hearing, but an order was made for him to pay a nominal sum of £1 after that was found to be the only amount available.

But yesterday a judge at Leeds Crown Court increased that figure by £3,000, by agreement with Browne, at a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing.

Browne, then 24, and of St Paul's Road, Manningham, was jailed for three years in October 2009, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to handle stolen motor vehicles over a two and a half year period.

He was part of a six-man gang, who were all friends from Bradford, jailed for a total of 16 years.

The gang obtained details of cars which had been manufactured and sent abroad, and forged documents for similar cars which had been stolen, to indicate they had been imported into the UK.

They registered the cloned cars with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, and the stolen cars - including Audis, Range Rover Sports, Volkswagen Golfs and a BMW - were then sold on for profit.

The sentencing judge said it was a well organised conspiracy, motivated by money and the prospect of driving high-value cars beyond their legitimate means. They had been prepared to get involved in serious professional crime, exploiting the fact that the DVLA did not carry out physical checks on vehicles imported by private individuals.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said Browne had been given six months to pay the £3,000, with two months imprisonment in default, at yesterday's hearing.

The spokesman said the extra monies was the equity from a Mercedes A45 AMG car, a private registration plate and two wrist watches.

David Charity, the force's financial investigation manager, said confiscation orders for £240,000 had been obtained from the gang.

He added: "We want to send the clear message that crime doesn't pay. While we can demonstrate the proceeds that a criminal has made from crime, they do not always immediately have the available assets to pay the amount back in full.

"We are able to re-visit offenders at a later date and see if they have further available assets, such as houses, cars or cash, and obtain a further order to the total criminal benefit."