A group of convicted criminals including a Weybridge man have been ordered to pay back more than £170,000 after pleading guilty to fraud and money laundering charges.

Graham Osborne, 68, a mortgage adviser who lives in Monument Hill in Weybridge, was ordered to repay £15,000 in January after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud following an investigation conducted into money laundering allegations against Tony McFie, 33, from Camberley.

McFie was first arrested after a search in November 2012 under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 where £17,000 in cash was seized.

Further investigations were launched, where officers from Surrey Police found large sums of money had been passed to Richard Abbott, 69, of Guildford, to a dormant company and back to McFie before being transferred onwards.

Money transfers on McFie’s bank accounts found transactions linked to Osborne, where payments were sent from Osborne’s account to Abbott’s account, and then to a fourth man, David Langley-Taylor, 56, from Bournemouth.

The supply of payslips and bank account statements in return for payment between Abbott and Langley-Taylor were subsequently linked to Osborne.

Osborne and Langley-Taylor were arrested on September 25 and 26, 2013 following searches of their homes which found applications for mortgages using fake bank statements, P60s, wage slips and utility bills.

More than 30 production orders and numerous searches were undertaken in the investigation spanning across Yorkshire, Cornwall, Dorset and Surrey, with 17 suspects and four companies under investigation at one point. All four defendants received suspended prison sentences and were served with section 18 orders under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Abbot was ordered to repay £155,000 after a compliance order and confiscation order granted on March 23. McFie was ordered to repay £17,000 under a forfeiture order in September 2015. Langley-Taylor was ordered to repay £1,259.92 under a confiscation order granted on December 4, 2015.