An accountant has been ordered to repay more than £4m after a confiscation hearing at Southampton Crown Court. Nirmal Sharma, 51, who was also a magistrate, from Slough, was arrested in July 2003 on suspicion of fraudulently obtaining money from his clients by falsely claiming they owed payments to the then Customs & Excise or Inland Revenue. This money was then paid into various accounts held in the names of his relatives. He was subsequently charged with 10 counts of 'procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception' and one count of false accounting. He was also charged with one count of 'doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice' after contact had been made with one of the complainants. Following a trial at Winchester Crown Court in 2007, Sharma was found guilty on all but three of the charges and sentenced to 30 months' imprisonment for the theft offences and nine months for attempting to pervert the course of justice. After an investigation that spanned five years and covered assets in a number of other countries including Guernsey, Singapore and India, a judge granted a confiscation order against Sharma for £4,101,339. Sharma must repay £2,847,730 within three months and £1,253,609 within six months. If he doesn't, he will have to serve a further eight years' prison in default. He has also been issued with a Financial Reporting Order under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. This means that every year he will have to give full details of his assets and income to the Thames Valley Police Economic Crime Unit.