Pay £5m or it's more time in jail, Nadir told

Asil Nadir’s claim to be penniless after his spectacular fall from head of a multinational empire to jailed thief were rejected today when the disgraced tycoon was told to pay £5m or face a further six years in prison.

Nadir, 71, was jailed for 10 years in August for plundering nearly £29m from Polly Peck International before its collapse in 1990 and siphoning the money abroad.

Nadir, who had been pursued for £60m in compensation and interest, thanked the judge before he was led from the dock at the Old Bailey to continue his sentence at the high-security Belmarsh prison.

His decision to return to Britain in 2010 from Northern Cyprus backfired when he was found to have stolen from his company out of “pure greed”.

Nadir had claimed he was left without assets and lived on the generosity of his family and friends, including a Turkish airline owner who said he had paid £4.3m so Nadir could live in Mayfair as he sought to clear his name.

But Mr Justice Holroyde said that it could not be true that he received no significant income since 1993 as the “proud and talented man” would not have lived off handouts from his mother and a girlfriend.