A businessman who faked the birth of 26 non-existent babies using bogus birth certificates as part of a organised benefit scam has been ordered to pay back £1.

Rory McWhirter concocted the scheme while living with his paediatric doctor girlfriend in Dundee, who had charges against her dropped.

He duped people into applying for fake jobs at a Glasgow hotel through an ad on Gumtree - then used their identity details and those of other couples to get copies of their marriage certificates.

He then used those and forged letters claiming the kids had been born in home births before using them to register the non-existent children.

McWhirter, who was jailed for 28 months, earned £80,000 a year but the court heard he had no assets of his own with his home listed in his girlfriend's name.

Fiscal depute Joanne Smith told the court that an agreement had been reached with defence lawyers for an order to be made for just £1.