A CONMAN who swindled more than £100,000 from women he met through dating site Plenty of Fish has been ordered to pay £10,530 to his victims - half the amount he was initially told to pay up.

Fantasist Zac Langley, 42, is currently serving a five-year sentence after pretending to be a Royal Marine, an MoD intelligence officer, a successful property developer and a shipping magnate.

On Monday morning, Langley, formerly of Yarrow Road in Poole, appeared via prison video link at Bournemouth Crown Court for a Proceeds of Crime Act mention hearing.

Jonathan Underhill, prosecuting, said figures initially agreed upon would be reduced by almost half.

"There is to be an application under the Act to have a declaration of inadequacy made in relation to the current available amount," he said.

There is no time limit on this repayment process. Langley could have to pay back more, should he come into money in the future.

The original payment was set at just over £19,000 in March last year, the court heard. At that time, Langley was given three months to pay, or serve an additional nine months in prison.

Langley, who represented himself, was flanked by a prison guard during his appearance. It was heard that the figures include a 'tainted gift' sum of £8,450 and a further £2,080.56 made through auctions of Langley's belongings.

Tainted gift provisions were introduced to prevent defendants avoiding confiscation orders by transferring ill-gotten gains to others who may have had no knowledge of the criminal origins of the money.

Judge Jonathan Fuller said the full details will be heard by magistrates at a hearing later this month.

"Bearing in mind how things have developed, I'm happy to amend the available amount to £10,530.56," the judge said.

The defendant will serve at extra six months if he defaults on payment.

Langley told his victims he had £50m in the bank. He began targeting women just days after being released from prison, encouraging them to give him tens of thousands of pounds for brand new cars and so-called development opportunities.

He even proposed to one of the women and told her she should give up her job after telling her he would build a £4m home for them to live in together.

Langley, who has more than 20 aliases, met first victim Claire Cooper in person at the Bournemouth Pavilion on December 18 2015 - four days after his release from prison.

His third victim, single mother Danielle Allen, was tricked into buying him a brand new £31,000 Mercedes, as well as paying for a £2,000 weekend stay in Bath after he proposed to her and promised to build a £4 million family home.

Claire Cooper and her mother Muriel lost £103,000 to Langley's scams while Mrs Allen ended up just under £2,000 out of pocket.

Langley was described as a "serial fraudster" with a string of 12 convictions for 74 fraud-related offences dating back to May 2000.

The defendant - whose real name is Andrew Penfold - was jailed for five years and six months on November 14 2016 after pleading guilty to five counts of fraud and eight breaches of a court order that banned him from offending again.