Lee Rigby charity fraudster Gary Gardner to pay back fraction of cash he took
The widow and son of the slain serviceman "never received a penny" from the swindler, who channelled cash into his own account.
Friday 4 January 2019 15:35, UK
A conman who pocketed more than £20,000 raised for the young son of murdered soldier Lee Rigby has been ordered to pay back just over £3,000 in compensation.
Gary Gardner was jailed for two and a half years last September after being convicted of two counts of fraud.
The 56-year-old lorry driver had organised three truck-pull events attended by thousands of people, including Fusilier Rigby's widow, Rebecca, and son Jack.
The fraudster used some of the £20,250 raised to "prop up" his overdrawn bank account and to make a charity single he "knew would be a flop".
At a short Proceeds of Crime Act hearing on Friday, Leicester Crown Court heard Gardner benefited from £18,318.89 meant for the Jack Rigby Charitable Trust, but he was only ordered to pay his total assets which stood at £3,247.53.
Making a confiscation order for that amount, judge Philip Head told Gardner: "You have three months in which to pay it... you will serve a further two months in prison if you do not."
The judge instructed Gardner, of Old Holt Road, Medbourne, Leicestershire, to pay all funds in compensation to the Jack Rigby Charitable Trust.
He had claimed he wanted to raise money for Jack, but Mrs Rigby told the court last year that she and her son had "never received a penny from him."
In a victim impact statement at the time, Mrs Rigby said she was "disgusted" at Gardner's actions and that the court case was like reliving the earlier trial of her husband's killers.
Fusilier Rigby was murdered by Islamist extremists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale outside Woolwich Barracks in southeast London in May 2013.