A man who set up a fake website claiming to be investigating police brutality during coronavirus demonstrations has been ordered to pay more than €300,000 to the Dutch state.

The 61-year-old man from Hillegom founded a bogus organisation called the Extra-Parliamentary Investigative Committee 2020 and raised around €400,000 in payments and donations to two websites.

He claimed to have obtained signed statements by police officers about violence against people demonstrating against Dutch lockdown rules in 2020. He also said video evidence had been stored in a safe.

Thousands of people donated money to his cause or bought copies of an “interim report” containing further police statements.

But the documents were forgeries and the man spent the donations on holidays in Aruba, Germany, Austria and Sweden, the district court in The Hague found.

The state petitioned to reclaim €302,000 following the man’s conviction last month, when he was sentenced to 18 months in prison, six months of which was suspended.

It represents the financial gain the court found he had made from his fraudulent activities. If he fails to pay his jail term could be extended by up to three years until he does.