KIRK SHELTON, the former vice-chairman of Cendant, the owner of the Avis car rental group, was yesterday sent to jail for ten years and ordered to pay back more than $3 billion (£1.7 billion) lost from the company because of the $500 million fraud he orchestrated.

Shelton, 50, was found guilty in January of multiple counts of fraud and making false statements to regulators connected to a scheme that in 1998 wiped billions of dollars from the property and travel company’s accounts.

US District Judge Alvin Thompson, in Hartford, Connecticut, sentenced Shelton to ten years in prison, to which he must report by September 2. Judge Thompson amazed the packed courtroom, however, when he added that Shelton should pay pack more than $3.3 billion to the company he used to run. Shelton’s former fortune has largely been spent on legal bills during the seven-year case, but he was ordered to pay $15 million of the total before October.

The remaining $3 billion-plus will be paid back at a rate of $2,000 a month for the rest of his life after he leaves prison.

Shelton’s false filings and fraudulent actions inflated Cendant’s sales by more than $500 million. He was accused of masterminding the frauds to drive up the company’s share price and help it to meet Wall Street profit targets. In turn, the falsely inflated stock price kept his pay and bonuses rising, even though the company was in much poorer financial health than the market believed.

The charges against Shelton were similar to those against Bernard Ebbers, former chief executive of WorldCom, the bankrupt telecoms company. Last month Ebbers was jailed for 25 years for involvement in a scheme to prop up its sales to keep its share price, along with his pay, riding high.

Shelton’s lawyer said that he intends to appeal against conviction and maintains that he never benefited from the fraud.