Deborah Clarkson, who swapped her £2m luxury Lytham home for a prison cell after being jailed for 18 months last year, was at Preston Crown Court for a proceeds of crime hearing.

She was told she must repay £550,874.65 by a judge – or face another four years of prison on top of the original term.

Financial investigator Alan Todd, from Blackpool Police, said: "Clarkson had acquired these assets since 2002, while having no legitimate income.

"She has led an extremely lavish lifestyle which was wholly undeserved and at one stage owned two Rolls Royces.

"Nobody should ever benefit from crime and this case is yet another example of how the Lancashire Police will use the latest proceeds of legislation to remove criminal assets."

The mother-of-two, from Clifton Drive, was jailed for 18 months in June last year for fraudulently obtaining the loans against two properties in the town.

Applying for a £900,000 mortgage, she claimed to be earning £250,000 a year running a property investment firm when she was in fact a housewife looking after the children at home.

Her previous job had been running a hairdressing salon in Accrington.

The 46-year-old had been found guilty of two charges of deception relating to remortgages on the two properties in Lytham following a trial the previous April.

The trial heard how Clarkson and her husband Mark had a flamboyant lifestyle, driving Rolls Royces and a Mercedes Benz sports car.

Mr Clarkson was declared bankrupt in 1999 when his Burnley print firm collapsed with the loss of 50 jobs and any profits had to be declared to the bankruptcy trustees.

The Crown alleged because of that, his wife pretended to be paying for the properties from well-paid employment.

When she married in January 2002, she was running the salon earning about £13,000 a year before selling up.

But the court heard how Clarkson applied for remortgages of £600,000 and £304,000 to the Halifax Bank and the Bank of Scotland in 2003 for houses in West Beach and Clifton Drive in Lytham.

Clarkson claimed she had not read the mortgage papers before signing but insisted there was no intention to mislead.

But Judge Anthony Donovan told her she and her husband had led a "luxury lifestyle".

He added: "You're not a naive woman, a housewife who just willy-nilly signed a document. You knew the property needed to be remortgaged."