Pensioners' anger after crook who conned them out of £30,000 stamp collections is ordered to pay back just 1p

A crooked antiques dealer who stole nearly £30,000 by conning pensioners out of their precious stamp collections has been ordered to pay back just 1p.

Philip Clarke, 60, has avoided paying back all 32 of his elderly victims because he was declared bankrupt at the time of the thefts.

He duped customers into handing over their albums for a valuation before brazenly selling them on without their knowledge.

Clarke then pocketed the cash and when his victims phoned to ask for their stamps or money, he used stalling tactics to put them off.

He was eventually arrested and jailed for 21 months at Dorchester Crown Court, Dorset, for deception.

But at a confiscation hearing, a judge ruled that Clarke should only have to pay a token sum of 1p to his victims as he had no assets to his name.

Afterwards, some of the pensioners swindled by the conman spoke of their anger.

Beryl Lyons-Davis lost her £20,000 stamp collection after being charmed into handing it over to Clarke.

Mrs Lyons-Davis, 68, from Wool, Dorset, said: "It is absolutely appalling. This isn't justice. He will be out of jail soon enough and now he has got out of paying his debt back.

"The only reason I tried to sell my collection was to pay to have my thatched roof repaired but I am now out of pocket." 

Victim John Bell, 73, from Ferndown, Dorset, said: "I can't believe he has wriggled out of paying all that money back.

"He lived in a nice house and I believe he drove a nice car yet now he calls himself bankrupt.

"I've never received a penny of my money back or an apology - it's just disgusting."

Clarke set up the Boscombe Stamp Company in Bournemouth after he was released
from jail in 1998 for a similar scam involving antiques.

The father-of-two advertised his services in the Yellow Pages and in the back of collectors' magazines.

His victims contacted him in order to have their stamp collections either valued or sold on.

David Allen, from Belton, Lincolnshire, lost his £12,000 collection of stamps and postcards after falling for his lies.

Eric Piper had built his collection up from the age of six to 89. He died shortly after making a complaint to the police when Clarke failed to give him his money.

Clarke  duped a man aged in his 90s and living in a nursing home out of a set of stamps worth £500 while the local Salvation Army lost £175 worth of stamps.

Mrs Lyons-Davis said she built up her collection with her late husband for 40 years.

She said: 'I got his name out of the Yellow Pages believing that he was a bona fide dealer.

'He came to my house to value my 18 albums and he was a right charmer. He told me he needed to take my collection away to be valued and I fell for it.

'But within an hour of him leaving I realised I had made a mistake and that he was a bad man.'

After he was arrested Clarke managed to pay £17,000 back to some of his victims, including £6,500 to Mrs Lyons-Davis.

Clarke was jailed in March after he admitted 24 counts of evasion of liability by deception and asked for a further eight offences to be taken into consideration.

At the confiscation hearing judge John Beashel told the court: 'Because the defendant is an undischarged bankrupt I am going to make a nominal order of 1p.'

The court heard that if Clarke comes into any money in the future there will be further confiscation proceedings.