A PROPERTY fraudster has had £1.3m in criminal assets awarded back to victims in a ground-breaking legal case.

Civil recovery action against Gary Robb, 52, has led to approximately £1.6 million of assets being frozen and £1.3 million shared among 71 of the victims of a property development scam in north Cyprus.

The result is a ground breaking ruling at the Royal Courts of Justice and work by the National Crime Agency (NCA) against Robb, who was brought up in Northallerton but went to school in Middlesbrough.

In 2001 he set up property development business, AGA Developments, and after taking payments from predominantly British customers but failed to complete a single house in the Amaranta Valley development in north Cyprus.

Donald Toon, Director of the NCA’s Economic Crime Command, said: “This case is the first time that this legislation has been used to both disrupt serious criminal activity, and enable victims to reclaim funds."