A DISGRACED Kidderminster former clergyman who fleeced a pensioner out of tens of thousands of pounds while he was in a care home has been ordered to pay back more than £60,000 to his victim's family.

Rev Peter Hesketh, who had been a chaplain at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, was jailed was jailed for three and a half years in February this year after being found guilty of siphoning cash from 75-year-old Peter Court's accounts.

He only stopped when Mr Court died in May, 2007. Worcester Crown Court heard that forensic accountants had calculated the father of five had made a benefit of £71,496.25 from the con.

Judge Toby Hooper QC ruled that as Hesketh had already paid £10,000 back, a final amount of £60,786.04 should be confiscated and that all of it should go towards compensation.

Hesketh will have six months to pay the amount or face a further 12 months behind bars.

Judge Hooper told him: "To your credit, and that of all others involved, this figure can be agreed. You have already made efforts to repay the amount involved. You have done very well, if I may say so."

During the trial, the court heard how Hesketh - who was ordained a deacon in the Catholic Church in 1992 - had been given financial power of attorney by the family of Mr Court, a former landlord of the Woodman pub in Bewdley, but soon began to abuse his position.

Though held in "high regard" by his victim, the 65 year old, of The Presbytery, Shrewsbury Road, Kidderminster, treated Mr Court with contempt, often making derogatory remarks about him, the court was told.

Some of the stolen cash was used to pay for a wedding venue, possibly for his daughter, while another chunk went on a mortgage for a property he was converting into flats. Some of the money was thought by prosecutors to have been squandered on gambling.

He had counted on a family fallout among Mr Court's relatives to ensure the swindle went unnoticed, the court had heard.