A hopeless Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? contestant who flopped spectacularly on the show – walking away with a pathetic £1,000 after bungling a simple question – has been slapped with a staggering £4.1million payback order after turning friends’ hard-earned savings into a secret gambling jackpot.

Pensioner Jeff Arundell, 75, from the posh Sion Hill area of Bath, was already rotting behind bars for a string of despicable financial crimes when a judge ruled he must hand over £4,140,428.59 in ill-gotten gains – or face an extra EIGHT years in jail on top of his six-and-a-half-year sentence.

Insiders say the grey-haired fraudster – who once sat nervously in Chris Tarrant’s hot seat back in 2000, sweating as he crashed out early – secretly turned £108,000 entrusted to him by a trusting pal and their family into a whopping £4.8million betting windfall through reckless spread trades.

But instead of repaying his victims as promised, Arundell hid the massive profits, lied about losses, and even abused his position to swipe cash from his own dying mother’s estate.

Now, in a dramatic Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at Bristol Crown Court on December 19, Judge Blair declared Arundell had ‘benefited’ by £4.8million from his crimes – and ordered the bulk seized, with over £220,000 going straight back to the devastated investors he betrayed.

If the crook – currently languishing in prison after his 2023 conviction – refuses or can’t pay up, he’ll be slapped with a default eight-year stretch, keeping him locked up well into his 80s.

‘This greedy gambler thought he’d hit the jackpot twice – first by conning his mates, then by turning their money into millions on the markets,’ a police source told Daily Mail. ‘But crime doesn’t pay, and now he’s facing the ultimate forfeit.’

The scandal traces back to 2016 when smooth-talking Arundell – living in one of Bath’s most exclusive postcodes – approached a longtime friend with a ‘guaranteed’ investment scheme.

Posing as a savvy trader, the then-66-year-old promised massive returns and personally guaranteed he’d repay every penny if things went wrong.

The friend and their relatives handed over around £108,000 – life savings in some cases – only for Arundell to plunge it all into high-risk spread betting on shares.

When the victims chased their money in December 2016, Arundell spun a web of lies: ‘Sorry, it’s all gone – I lost it trading.’

But detectives uncovered the shocking truth: he’d actually profited handsomely on some bets, pocketing winnings he never disclosed.

From those secret gains, Arundell went on a gambling frenzy, rolling the cash into more trades that ballooned into a £4.6million pot by August 2017.

All while his victims – including close friends who’d trusted him for decades – were left high and dry, unable to recover even their original stake.

‘He guaranteed repayment personally,’ a source close to the case revealed. ‘But when push came to shove, he hid the millions and cried poor.’

The betrayal came to light in January 2017 when the furious family reported him to police.

A probe revealed even darker deeds: Arundell, holding power of attorney for his elderly mother, had siphoned off £100,000 from her estate while she was still alive – robbing siblings of their inheritance.

He was separately convicted of fraud by abuse of position in April 2021 for that heartless swindle.

At his 2023 trial, a jury found him guilty of three counts of fraud by false representation and one of money laundering over the £86,000 core scam – but cleared him on a fourth count.

Sentenced to six-and-a-half years, Arundell was branded a ‘calculated deceiver’ by the judge.

Now, with the confiscation hammer falling, detectives are celebrating a ‘significant result’.

DCI Carlos Filippsen, of Avon and Somerset Police, beamed: ‘This shows we’ll strip criminals of every penny they’ve gained through crime. More than £220,000 goes back to victims – proof that crime does NOT pay.’

But Arundell’s brush with TV fame adds a delicious layer of irony to his downfall.

Back in 2000, at the height of Millionaire mania, the then-middle-aged contestant nervously took the hot seat opposite Chris Tarrant.

Viewers watched as he stumbled through questions, finally crashing out on a £4,000 poser – pocketed just £1,000 safety net prize.

Old clips show Arundell hesitating, umming and aahing – a far cry from the ‘expert trader’ he later claimed to be.

‘He was one of the show’s biggest flops,’ a TV insider chuckled. ‘Couldn’t win big on telly, so he turned to conning mates instead. Now karma’s collected with interest.’

Photos from the era capture a younger Arundell in the iconic studio lights, looking every bit the ordinary punter dreaming of riches.

Little did viewers know he’d one day gamble his way to millions – using other people’s money.

Neighbours in leafy Lansdown describe Arundell as ‘quiet and unassuming’ – the perfect mask for a fraudster.

‘He lived in a lovely area, drove a nice car,’ one local dished. ‘No one suspected he was fleecing friends and family.’

Victims, speaking anonymously, told of shattered trust.

‘He was like family,’ one said. ‘Promised the earth, then vanished with our savings. We’re relieved some money’s coming back – but it’ll never repair the damage.’

As Arundell serves his time, cops are hunting hidden assets – property, accounts, anything to claw back the cash.

‘We’ll leave no stone unturned,’ vowed DCI Filippsen. ‘This deters others – target victims, and we’ll take everything.’

In an era of get-rich-quick schemes and online trading hype, Arundell’s case is a stark warning: promise the moon, and the law will make you pay dearly.

From Millionaire flop to multi-million fraudster – now stripped bare.

Is this the ultimate fall from grace… or just another gambler who bet too big and lost everything?

One thing’s certain: Jeff Arundell’s luck has finally run out.