THE grasping Inverkip killer carers who murdered Margaret Fleming have finally settled their £182,000 benefits scam case - for a paltry £28k.
Avril Jones, 61, will stump up less than £3,500 while her partner in the crime, Eddie Cairney, 79, will fork out just under £25k.
The evil duo agreed to hand over the sums following a hearing held at the High Court in Edinburgh.
The pair were jailed back in 2019 for murdering Margaret some time between December 1999 and the following month, then covering their heinous crime up.
Jones had continued to claim £182,000 in benefits until it emerged that Margaret was missing in 2016.
Police suspect the duo took Margaret's life at their filthy, ramshackle Seacroft cottage in Inverkip.
Margaret's remains have never been found and the twisted killers refuse to say what they did with them.
Following the murder convictions, prosecutors launched a proceeds of crime action in a bid to recover the stolen benefit money.
In a short hearing before judge Lord Braid on Monday, Jones’s advocate John Brannigan said he and prosecutors agreed that she made £182,000 from her life of crime.
But he stated that she only had £3,473.20 available at this time.
Cairney’s counsel Mark Moir QC said he had agreed with the Crown that his client had made the same amount of money from his criminal activities.
Mr Moir said his client was going to hand over £24,347.98 to the Crown.
However, prosecutors can return to court to claim more money from the duo if they discover the pair have more cash or financial assets.
Cairney and Jones are serving life sentences for murdering 19-year-old Margaret.
Passing sentence at the time, judge Lord Matthews told the couple only they knew the truth of where Margaret's remains are.
Lord Braid has given Jones and Cairney six months to pay the stolen benefits cash back.
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