A FRAUDSTER who claimed thousands of pounds for caring for his mum despite the fact she was living in Bangladesh, has been ordered to pay back more than £80,000 or serve a further 21 months in jail.

Mohammed Rashid was sent down in August after Swansea Crown Court heard how he fraudulently obtained almost £93,000 by concealing the fact that his mother was thousands of miles away.

The 49-year-old, of Gwydr Crescent, Uplands, was given an 18-month prison sentence after pleading guilty.

But yesterday, during a confiscation hearing at the court, it was revealed that Rashid is expecting to be released on New Year's Eve after serving just a quarter of that term.

The confiscation hearing was the result of proceedings brought under the Criminal Justice Act by the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP).

Carl Harrison, for the prosecution, said that Rashid had benefited from the scam to the tune of £92,805.

But the DWP was only seeking £81,543 as Rashid had already paid back more than £11,000, said the barrister.

Judge Peter Heywood, making a formal confiscation order in this sum, said that Rashid would be sent to prison for 21 months if the money were not repaid within a year.

He also ordered Rashid to pay £1,000 towards the prosecution's costs.

Ali Mohammed Azhar, for the defence, said his client had a property portfolio comprising houses and a restaurant and would have to sell some of it to be able to pay back the money.

He also revealed that Rashid is expecting to be released from jail on December 31 after serving just four-and-a-half months of the sentence imposed on him on August 13 after he pleaded guilty to five charges of false accounting, obtaining transfers of money by deception and procuring the execution of valuable securities.

At the August hearing Rashid also asked for more than 850 other offences of a similar kind to be taken into consideration.

On that occasion Mr Harrison said that between 2001 and 2007 the defendant fraudulently obtained almost £93,000 as a result of claims for carer's allowance, income support, pension credit, housing benefit and disability living allowance.

The claims related to his mother, Tasbir Begum Latif, who for a time had lived with the defendant.

But in 2001 Mrs Latif went home to Bangladesh and over the next six years until her death in 2007 she spent most of her time there.

Mr Harrison said that in 1995 the defendant had become an "appointee" on behalf of Mrs Latif, who was registered blind, and in this capacity he dealt with all aspects of her various claims for benefits.

The benefits were either collected by Rashid himself or paid directly into bank accounts held by him.

Mr Harrison said Rashid knew he had a legal duty to inform the authorities of any changes in circumstances, but he failed to tell the Department for Work & Pensions that his mother was living thousands of miles away and therefore not entitled to benefits.

Detectives and DWP officials who seized passports from Rashid's home discovered that Mrs Latif had spent 55 months in Bangladesh between 2001 and 2007.