Ella Henderson's dad jailed at Sheffield Crown Court now ordered to pay £435,000 after £4.7m fraud

Sean Henderson, dad of the X Factor star, was jailed in Sheffield in 2018 after conning wealthy investors out of £4.7m

According to reports, he has now been ordered to pay out nearly half a million pounds after a proceeds of crime hearing at Doncaster Crown Court.

The Sun said the 55-year-old was a major player in a group who promised naïve victims huge gains, and was said to have made more than £565,700 in ill-gotten gains.

But detectives have only managed to track down assets worth £435,000, with a court ruling that he will have to pay it back in three months.

He was jailed for three and a half years at Sheffield Crown Court in April 2018, and has now been released from prison.

Henderson attempted to blame the “mafia” on taking the cash during his trial, but a jury convicted him of one count of conspiracy to defraud and one count of VAT fraud during three trials.

Ella was named in court as the one who greeted police at her father's address – Tetney Manor, North East Lincolnshire – but the judge banned the press from naming her in reports until the end of trials.

The total amount involved in the cases was £870,000 to £900,000, and his accomplice, Stephen Keegan, 50, was jailed for three years and nine months in April 2017.

Multi-millionaire victims were told the money they proposed to invest would gain interest - but when the wealthy benefactors received next to nothing in return they were sent a series of excuses.

Judge Paul Watson QC said at the time: “The whole scheme was a deliberate pre-planned fraud designed to deprive naive victims of a substantial proportion of their life savings.”

The amount involved in that matter was more than £26,000, and Henderson was cleared of fraud in September 2017 after a third trial.

In total, there were seven not guilty verdicts for charges that he was facing across the three trials.

He took his case to London’s Court of Appeal in 2017 but his convictions were upheld, with judge’s ruling the bid was “wholly without merit.”

The cases resurfaced this week at Doncaster Crown Court, where a long-awaited proceeds of crime hearing was held.

The criminal benefit that Henderson was said to have received was just over £565,711 and his available or realisable assets were put at £435,000.

Compensation will be paid to two victims in the sums of about £235,716 and £165,025 as well as £34,257 to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.

Judge Michael Slater said: “An enormous amount of work has gone into this case from the start.

“I am gratified that the two complainants will receive substantial compensation as a result of everyone's efforts in respect of this order.”

For Keegan, the benefit was put at just over £531,453, with assets put at just over £552,659.

Compensation will be paid to three victims in the sums of two lots of £202,981 each and a third of just over £125,491.

He also has three months to pay, with a prison sentence of five years in default.