AN army officer who cheated the public purse out of more than £200,000 to send his children to Stonyhurst College has been told he must repay just under £100,000.

Lieut Col Robert Jolleys has already served a 12-month jail sentence for pretending he was still living with his estranged wife Judith in married quarters so he would qualify for the military’s continuing education allowance.

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But he has now been ordered by a court to pay back £98,953 - even though a judge ruled he had benefited to the tune of around £232,000 over the five-year fraud.

Judge Peter Blair QC told Jolleys, of Woodlands Park, Whalley, that he had six months to hand over the sum - or face another 18 months in jail.

Lawyers acting for Jolleys, who is known as Henry, had argued that a one-eighth share which their client held in an East Lancashire property, occupied by his 90-year-old father, was not immediately realisable.

The court heard that any such move would harm his father, now a widower who suffered from skin cancer and heart disease.

But the judge ruled he may be required to sell property interests to meet the penalty, imposed under the Proceeds of Crime Act, following a hearing at Swindon Crown Court.

The court heard he also had more than £60,000 tied up in another house as well as other assets.

Jolleys was stationed at the Defence Academy in Shrivenham when he was found to have cheated the system. He claimed cash for three sons at £28,000-a-year Stonyhurst, gaining a 90 per cent subsidy for their education.

Service personnel can claim for sending children to boarding schools but Jolleys did not qualify as he was separated from his wife.

Jailing him in March last year, Recorder Jeremy Wright said he had committed a ‘serious, substantial fraud’.

He was convicted of fraud, deception and forgery offences, following a trial in January 2013, including signing his ex-wife’s signature on a bank form.

An appeal has been lodged over his conviction, which is due to be heard by law lords next January.