A FORMER headmaster who plundered tens of thousands in bogus overtime payments is getting a loan from his mum to help pay back his ill-gotten gains.

Simon Burrell was found to have benefitted from his dishonesty to the tune of £29,546.01p at a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing.

But a judge at Swindon Crown Court was told he only had about £22,000 from the proceeds of the sale of the house he shared with his partner before they moved.

And after being asked to remove a restraint order, which had frozen the money in his solicitor’s account, the court heard where the remaining cash would come from.

Tim Hills, representing the 43-year-old, said: “The £7,000 odd remaining is to be lent to him by his mother.”

And he said Burrell’s mum wanted an address to send the payment to as she wanted it to go directly to the authorities, rather than passing through her son’s hands.

Recorder Robert Pawson ruled he benefitted from crime by £29,546.01p, which he must repay in the next month or he will face a nine-month jail term.

And he ordered that £19,697.24p would be handed to the Blue Kite Academy Trust, which runs Ruskin County Juniors where he was head when he committed fraud.

While the compensation figure covers what he took, the rest represents the value of improvements he could afford to make on his home with the boost to his income.

Financial investigators found when he sold the property it achieved a better price as a result of the work carried out which had been funded by his crime.

The teacher insisted the payments also went on rent because the stress of trying to lift the school out of special measures affected his relationship.

Burrell said that he had moved out of the home he shared with his partner and rented a flat for a period of time as he ‘dragged this school up by its bootstraps’.

The former head was ordered to do unpaid work for the community when he was spared a jail term in April last year after admitting fraud and forgery.

He regularly paid himself for carrying out one-to-one tutoring of pupils at the Stratton school.

He also forged signatures on claim forms that were handed to the borough council to get the illicit payment, which was spent doing up his house.

Burrell, of Rawdon Way, Faringdon, admitted he pocketed £19,697.34p through fraud between the start of January 2011 the end of May, 2013.

He was put on a 12-month jail term suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work for the community.

Before Ruskin, Burrell was deputy head at Lydiard Millicent and head at King William Street primary schools.

Following his sentence in April it was revealed he was working as a Year 4 teacher at Goddard Park Community Primary under the name of Mr Gale.