Crooked Ipswich restauranteur Phing Pun jailed for another two years after failing to repay £540,000

Phing Pun and wife Kai Won outside Temptations

Phing Woon Pun, who used to run Temptations restaurant in Carr Street and the Lucky Star takeaway in Hawthorn Drive, was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment in 2011 was ordered to pay back the £683,370 he made.

However, the 52-year-old - who lived in Capel St Mary when he was convicted - has only paid back £246,511.

Now he has been sent back to prison for 726 days by Dover Magistrates Court because he has not paid the remaining £544,829 including a further £107,970 which had been accrued.

The debt will remain with him after he serves his second jail term.

Phing Pun (Image: Archant)

Pun was jailed along with his wife and their son and daughter for a number of offences linked to the Temptation Chinese Buffet in Carr Street, Ipswich, and the Lucky Star Takeaway in Hawthorn Drive, Ipswich following a joint operation by Suffolk Police, Suffolk Trading Standards and UK Border Agency.

In April 2010 Pun was convicted at Ipswich Crown Court of conspiring to breach UK immigration laws, conspiring to sell goods which infringed trademark and copyright, obtaining a £198,000 money transfer by deception and converting criminal property.

Pun’s wife, Kim Tai Wong, 51, conspiring to breach UK immigration laws and money laundering has paid back the £109,747, which was revised down from the original order of £322,021. Their son Yung Fatt Pun, 33, of Silk Street, Ipswich, has also paid back £5,012 after being jailed for four years for conspiring to breach UK immigration laws, fraud and converting criminal property

The trio were arrested after raids at Temptations and the Lucky Star found a total of 20 illegal immigrants and workers.

The Puns’ daughter, Siow Yin Pun, then 28, of Silk Street, was also jailed for three years for conspiring to breach UK immigration laws, conspiring to sell counterfeit goods and converting criminal property.

Another woman Ai Vee Ong, 32, of Hawthorn Drive, Ipswich, was jailed for four years for conspiring to breach UK immigration law, conspiring to sell counterfeit goods and converting criminal property.

The Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU) Asset Confiscation Enforcement team is assisting Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the action to claw back the cash owed by Phing Pun.

Detective Constable Nick Bentley said: “This should serve as a message to those with confiscation orders that they shall be pursued through the enforcement process if full payment is not made.

“Interest will be charged on your debt and you face being sent back to prison if you do not pay in time. People should also be under no illusion, the confiscation order will stay with you until every penny is paid back. We will regularly revisit each case until it has been.”