The former trustee of the Nottinghamshire Miner’s Home who was found guilty of embezzling funds from the charity earlier this year has been ordered to pay back more than £200,000.

In April, Neil Greatrex, who is also the former president of the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM), was found guilty of stealing nearly £150,000 from the charity.

And now the Yorkshire Post reports that Birmingham Crown Court has ordered Greatrex to pay back the sum of £201,327.51.

Greatrex had helped to found the UDM in 1985 as a breakaway from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and went on to become its president.

But he shattered his reputation within the UK mining community when he was found guilty of 14 counts of theft. He had billed £148,629 of private expenses to the charity, much of it for renovations on his home and grounds between 2000 and 2006.

Greatrex felt he was 'entitled to expenses'

“I believed I was entitled to a reasonable salary and expenses for the work that I was doing," Greatrex was reported as saying at the time.

The amount of the fine was calculated by adding the increase in value as calculated on the Retail Price Index to the £148,628.83 Greatrex stole. The Court has ordered him to pay this sum as compensation to Nottingham Miner’s Home.

Michelle Russell, the Charity Commission’s head of investigations and enforcement, is quoted as saying: “The Charity Commission has worked closely with South Yorkshire Police on this case and opened our own statutory inquiry into the charity in August 2007.

"When criminal proceedings concluded, we resumed our investigation and will publish a report once it is completed.”