A "greedy" father-of-two who tricked his employer out of £200,000 to squander on luxuries – including a hot tub from Amazon – in an elaborate hoax has been ordered to pay back more than £160,000.

Benjamin Cullen, from Herne Bay, drained his boss’s credit cards to make more than 500 purchases from the online retailer as part of the scam.

Rattan furniture, a gazebo, video games, gin and a nose wax kit were some of the items the then 43-year-old frittered his ill-gotten gains on.

In July 2022, he was sentenced to four years and nine months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to four counts of fraud by abuse of position.

Supported by his wife in the public gallery, he covered his face with his hand and wept as the judge delivered his final remarks.

Blaze Signs in Broadstairs hired Cullen in 2016 to oversee the running of its IT department, the court heard.

Entrusted with the firm’s finances by 2018, including his chief executive’s American Express card, Cullen longed for the high life his £37,000 salary couldn’t afford.

By 2020, he would leave one of the UK’s largest sign-makers counting the significant cost of his fraud, after doctoring dozens of invoices payable to fake firms which he assembled.

Cullen paid 10 invoices worth £24,000 from Peartree Computing, where he was the director, between 2018 and 2020. He was arrested after an internal investigation had led to the discovery he was responsible for several fraudulent invoices and the misuse of a company credit card during these two years.

Meanwhile, the IT specialist created domain host firm GFI Mailer, then authorised £90,000 worth of payments from Blaze’s budget to the company.

He went on to use Clive Knight’s company card to make some 527 payments to Amazon, worth £56,000, including a “black rattan hot tub surround”, Mr Forbes said in court in July 2022.

The court also heard Cullen had doctored the paper trail to reflect computer gear, to conceal the unusual payments.

But he came unstuck after skimming £29,000 from Mr Knight’s AmEx card. Cullen didn’t use reference numbers while making fraudulent payments to himself, so the bank auto-filled the records with his mobile phone number.

The fraudster was suspended in September 2020 pending an internal investigation

After he was sentenced, police made an application to Canterbury Crown Court for a confiscation order, using powers contained within the Proceeds of Crime Act. The act enables police to claw back money and assets which offenders have gained from their criminal activities and can be used again if the offenders come into further assets.

A hearing took place at the court on Friday, May 17 2024, where Cullen, 45, was found to have benefited from his criminal conduct to the value of £243,300. His current available assets were determined to be £163,934 including equity in a property. He was ordered to pay the £163,934 amount within three months or faces an additional 20 months in prison.

DI Dave Godfrey said: “Cullen’s actions amounted to the gross abuse of a trusted position and the effects of his crimes have caused serious long-term harm to the company he worked for.

“This confiscation order demonstrates again that those who commit serious fraud will not only be brought to justice but will be deprived of their criminal gains, to rightly compensate their victims.”