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Allan Formhals was told at Southampton Crown Court that he had six months to pay or faces an extra 15 months in prison. The 68-year-old, from Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire, was found guilty of 10 counts of fraud in 2012 and had been sentenced to 10 months in prison.

Formhals' fraud was revealed when the police searched his house and found alongside a calligraphy pen and brown ink a number of autograph books and papers containing forged signatures ranging from Churchill and Tolkien to Elizabeth I and Oliver Cromwell.