Former England batsman Larkins spared jail

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Larkins, who played 13 times for his country, and his partner, Deborah Lines, illegally obtained a mortgage to buy a holiday home in France.

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On the defence: Wayne Larkins played 13 times for England

Lines' father, Robert Adams, had offered the couple a half-share in his £120,000 house in Taunton, Somerset, after he divorced his wife. But Lines forged his signature on the title deeds to pretend that she and Larkins owned the property.

The couple, who live in Exhall, Bidford on Avon, Warwickshire, then successfully applied for a £155,000 mortgage secured against the value of Mr Adams' home in Taunton.

They gave the pensioner the £60,000 they owed him but spent a further £91,000 on buying a retirement home in France.

The couple pleaded guilty to a number of deception charges during a hearing at Taunton Crown Court last year.

Today, Judge Graham Hume Jones handed them each a 12-month suspended jail sentence and ordered them to pay back £54,000 which had been frozen in their account since they sold their French property.