A WORLD-renowned architect who stole at least £1 million from a Bournemouth charity has been given three months to pay it back - or spend an extra two years in jail.

Guy Pound pleaded poverty in Southampton Crown Court, claiming he had no assets to compensate the Talbot Village Trust except for £4,000 worth of paintings and a private pension of £29,000 a year.

He said the £4.75 million he was paid by the trust had been squandered on unsuccessful business ventures, fine dining and first-class air travel and that the six properties he owned in Canford Cliffs, Westbourne and Parkstone had been transferred to a trust fund.

But Judge Jeremy Burford said the 71-year-old fraudster was "evasive, vague and dishonest". He found that Pound had "gifted" his wife with £356,280 to reduce his means and said he probably had at least £500,000 in offshore accounts or trust funds. He ordered Pound to pay £860,280 to the trust by January 4, 2005, or spend a further two years in prison.

From his practice in Ravine Road, Canford Cliffs, Pound built up a reputation as one of the area's premier architects. He designed Hythe Marina near Southampton and also worked on the Australian High Court in Canberra. But his reputation was in tatters after he was convicted of defrauding the Talbot Village Trust over an 11-year period and sentenced to three years imprisonment in April.

Sussex-based quantity surveyors Anthony Green and Peter Beard were given suspended prison sentences following the 13-month trial while Peter Hayward and John Parkinson, former chairman and managing director of building firm W Hayward and Sons, were both found not guilty.

Dorset Police and the Serious Fraud Office are to appeal against the sentences handed to Pound, Green and Beard and the Talbot Village Trust has started civil proceedings against all five original defendants.

First published: October 5