A MAN who stole £800,000 from two pensioners was ordered to repay just £500 yesterday because it was all the money he had.

Gary Watts’ defence barrister told a judge at Oxford Crown Court on Monday that his family had sold his car for £500 and would pay it when they were told.

Watts, 57, of George Street, Bicester, was jailed for three years in April after he admitted stealing the £800,000 from two Bicester pensioners and then lost it gambling online.

For more than a year between January 2014 and February 2015, police said Watts was entrusted to handle the finances of a 92-year-old woman and an elderly man.

He pleaded guilty of one count of theft at a hearing on March 9.

Yesterday, Judge Peter Ross presided over a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing to order Watts to repay some of the money owed. Prosecutor Naomi Perry told him: “£500 is what is available. The car has been sold and the funds will be available.”

Watts’ defence barrister John Reilly confirmed that was the case.

Judge Ross said: “Regrettably the available amount is only £500”, and made a confiscation order for that sum to be paid in 28 days.

If Watts does not pay, Judge Ross said the alternative would be 14 days in prison to run after his current sentence.

He also ordered Watts to pay a £120 victims’ surcharge.

Det Con Krista Thompson, from Thames Valley Police Economic Crime Unit, said after the original sentencing: “This was an extreme abuse of the trust placed in him and has caused a great deal of distress to everyone involved.

“I am pleased that he accepted responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty.”

The force has never explained how Watts came to be in charge of the couple’s finances when asked by the Oxford Mail.