STUDENTS swindled by a rogue letting agent have now got their money back nearly five years after the scam.

Zulfiqar Hussain took deposits and a month’s rent from the seven students so they could live in an East Oxford house. But when they came to move in, they found the house was not in Hussain’s care.

Hussain – who founded Charles Lawson Lettings in Cowley Road in 2005 – admitted seven counts of engaging in an unfair commercial practice after the incident in 2009 and was ordered to pay the students £8,167 in compensation.

Oxfordshire County Council’s Trading Standards department secured a compensation order after Hussain pleaded guilty but failed to pay the students their compensation until last month.

One student has now received £3,292, while six others received compensation between £506.25 and £1,350.

At Oxford Crown Court in February 2012, Hussain was given a nine-month jail term suspended for two years after admitting swindling clients between 2007 and 2009.

He was also told to do 40 hours’ unpaid work, pay £51,136.40 costs and hand over £250,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act.