A CAREER criminal serving nine years in jail for 101 distraction burglaries has been told to sell his house to compensate the victims.

William Vinson, who targeted elderly people in at least nine counties in the south and Midlands, is believed to have gained almost £150,000 through his “criminal lifestyle”.

He was told by Judge Patrick Eccles at Oxford Crown Court yesterday that he must pay back more than £110,000 or face a further two-and-a-half years in jail.

He was jailed in January after posing as a new neighbour, a council worker or an electricity inspector to steal from dozens of victims aged between 79 and 94.

Judge Anthony King called Vinson “despicable” and said he had carried out a “deliberate campaign that continued week after week”.

The 60-year-old, who at the time was living in Cotswold Terrace, Chipping Norton, was back in court yesterday for a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Of the £110,000, which will partly be realised through the sale of a house in Hill View Crescent, Banbury, almost £30,000 will be dished out as compensation.

Sometimes using the pseudonym Dave Knight, Vinson conned people in Southmoor, Checkendon, Stoke Row and Great Haseley, often posing as a new neighbour who needed change for large bank notes to pay a plumber.

Yesterday, prosecutor Jonathan Stone said: “There’s no dispute that he has benefited from a general criminal lifestyle (beyond that contained in the charges).”

He said Vinson had accrued “a variety of monies and assets which constitute something a little in excess of £17,000” along with “unidentified deposits” totalling about £15,000 in a Barclays account and two vehicles valued at a total of more than £2,000.

The vast majority of Vinson’s criminal worth is tied up in a mortgage-free house, which he co-owns with his son Craig.

Vinson’s half of the property, bought in August 2010, is worth about £110,000, the court heard.

In all,his ‘benefit figure’ of ill-gotten gains was assessed at £148,136.08.

Robert English, defending, said his client could pay back £112,676.46p and asked for six months to sell the house.

Judge Eccles agreed the amounts and warned Vinson: “If the monies are not paid there must, therefore, be a time in prison in default.”

He set that at two years and six months.