A gang jailed for a £1m bank notes forgery plot have been ordered to pay back more than £400,000 from their crimes.

The gang included 62-year-old Bradford man John Hartley and Lee Mitchell, 41, from Pudsey, who along with two others were sentenced in 2010 to a total of thirty five and a half years in prison after fraud officers uncovered their multi-million pound operation to counterfeit cash.

Four confiscation orders to the total of £400,371.22 were granted at Leeds Crown Court by Judge Kearl QC. Out of that Hartley, of Cheltenham Road, Swain House, was given six months to pay back £252,445.23 from the £902,865.20 he was found to have made illegally.

Assets of his that were seized included a top-of-the-range Range Rover, £79,000 cash seized from his shops in Bradford and Leeds, £60,000 seized from his bank accounts, £12,000 in antiques and £75,000 from equity in property in Bradford.

He was jailed for five and a half years after police discovered him with more than £380,000 in fake notes when officers swooped on a Range Rover being driven on the M62.

As part of the operation, police had raided two homes in Leeds in June, 2009, and seized £5,000 in cash and electrical equipment used to print fake notes – arresting Mitchell and Christopher Brooke, 31, of Swinnow Gardens, Bramley – Hartley was arrested a month later on the M62.

Further investigations led to officers searching fourth defendent Ian Cole’s farm-house in Northop, Mold, where they found more than £650,000 of counterfeit notes, part printed notes and equipment used in the production of counterfeit cash.

Officers also recovered paper used to make counterfeit currency capable of producing £4.8 million in fake notes.

At sentencing the court was told Mitchell and Brooke had the skills and the knowledge to produce the cash, Cole was the facilitator and Hartley was the distributer.

Pudsey man Mitchell was found to have earned £207,428.53 from his crime and on Monday was ordered to pay £8,889.93, which was the available amount of cash seized by police.

Cole, 58, had made £264,271.34 from crime and was ordered to pay £135,386.06, his assets included equity of £130,000 in his property in Wales, farming machinery worth £3,000 and cash in a bank account.

Brooke was found to have made £3650 from his ill-gotten gains and was ordered to pay back the same amount.

This week HHJ Kearl QC praised the financial investigator on the detailed and complex investigation that had identified the defendants' benefit from crime and any assets available for confiscation.

DCI Mick Lawrenson, of the Economic Crime Unit, said: "Confiscations like this send the clear message to criminals that we use all powers available to stop them leading luxurious lives while heaping misery on others, and ensure their crimes do not pay.”

If you suspect someone of leading a life funded by crime call 0800 555 111, to find out more go to whyshouldthey.co.uk