A suspected VAT fraudster will be stripped of assets worth millions of pounds.

Former boxer Ronnie Decker was accused of being behind a complex scam which stole £48.25m from the public purse.

Charges against Decker were dropped in favour of pursuing him in the civil courts.

The Court of Session in Edinburgh has now granted the Crown Office permission to seize 77 assets from Decker including diamonds, Rolex watches, properties and bank accounts spanning countries including France, Antigua and Luxembourg.

The assets, worth an estimated £3m, have been frozen since 2011 pending the outcome of the case.

Linda Hamilton, head of the Crown Office's Civil Recovery Unit (CRU), said: "Ronnie Decker set out to illegitimately extract monies from the UK Treasury through the systematic abuse of the VAT repayments system in order to line his and his family's pockets with funds that otherwise would have been available to the public purse."

She said they had "worked hand-in-hand with HMRC's Criminal Taxes Unit to conduct a financial investigation that spanned the globe".

Ms Hamilton added: "We traced the movements of Decker's funds and assets across three continents to build up a picture of the true scale of his profiteering and uncovered around £3m in illegal assets.

"I am delighted that today we have been successful in stripping him of the assets and funds that he accrued in this way, and that the money is now where it belongs and available for use in public projects."

The Crown Office said in a statement: "The Civil Recovery Unit (CRU) and the Criminal Taxes Unit of HMRC were able to establish that Decker, who is originally from Sierra Leone and was educated in Scotland, was heavily involved in the VAT fraud and the subsequent laundering of the proceeds."

Funds raised from the sale of the assets will be handed to the Scottish Government.

Decker was originally accused of being involved, along with accomplice Michael Voudouri, in a £48.25m VAT fraud using Glasgow firm Q-Tech Distribution Ltd.

The firm claimed bogus VAT repayments on a complex series of fake transactions across Europe in scams known as carousel fraud.

In 2011, the CRU seized £1,271,842 from Q-Tech Distribution owner Mohammed Sarfraz Sattar.

Voudouri was convicted of stealing £10.3m from the taxman and jailed for 11 and a half years in 2014.

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