A crook who nicked goods from John Lewis and flogged them online has been told to pay back over £55,000 or spend another 18 months behind bars.
Lai Uong, 47, from Gravesend, was a stockroom worker at the Bluewater store, where he helped himself to laptops, phones and other gadgets worth £45,598.
He then sold them on an online site, but was caught after a search of his property revealed the stolen items and the buyers who bought them.
Uong was jailed for two years and eight months in 2022 after he admitted handling stolen goods.
But he didn’t get to enjoy his ill-gotten gains for long, as financial investigators from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate used the Proceeds of Crime Act to seize his cash and assets.
At Woolwich Crown Court on Friday 28 July, Uong was ordered to pay back John Lewis £45,298.48. Another £10,416.06 will be split between agencies that fight crime, including Kent Police.
Detective Inspector David Godfrey said: ‘We have used this legislation to make sure criminals like Uong don’t profit from their crimes. I am glad that the store will get its money back and that this case shows that crime does not pay.’