A Suffolk prisoner who helped steal £2million from the Dubai royal family has had to hand over £3,000 from his jail bank account.

Trevor Mair was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment for being part of a gang which stole the family’s UK holiday spending money as it was being loaded into a car boot in London.

Three years before the robbery Mair was convicted of laundering £142,000.

As a result Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court ordered him to lose his assets of £1,750 at the time, which were deemed part of his proceeds from crime.

However, when Mair was transferred to Highpoint prison near Newmarket in May this year during his subsequent robbery sentence Suffolk Constabulary’s financial investigators discovered £3,000 in postal orders had been paid into his jail account.

The matter was brought before Ipswich Crown Court for the previous Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) confiscation order to be adjusted.

The original order, made in April 2008, was raised to £4,750 so the £3,000 could be confiscated.

Following the hearing Andy Gould of Suffolk’s financial investigation unit said: “This outcome yet again underlines that there can be no hiding place for those that have benefitted from crime, and despite the passing of time our specialist financial investigators will have no hesitation in revisiting cold cases where information comes to our attention that will enable us to reopen historic POCA confiscation proceedings.”

In 2011 Mair, of New Addington, Croydon, was found guilty at Isleworth Crown Court of being involved in the £2million heist.

The then 46-year-old was jailed in March last year.

Mair was one of two men who approached Abdullah Shakeri, an aide to the Dubai royal family, as he left the Emirates bank in Knightsbridge with £2m.

One of the robbers pointed a handgun at Mr Shakeri and said: “Put it down, put it down or I’ll shoot you in the face.”

Initially he thought it was a joke, but was threatened again and told to run in to a shop or he would be shot.

Mair was arrested shortly afterwards when police officers, who were on a routine patrol in their vehicle in nearby Cadogan Square, spotted him pulling a suitcase towards a stationary car.

The cash was retrieved and returned to the royals.