THE parents of a notorious Cheshire loan shark must vacate their son’s confiscated £650,000 Spanish villa.

Paul Nicholson, 40, who lived in a £1.4m mansion on Golf Course Road in Delamere, was jailed indefinitely in March 2009 after being found guilty of rape, assault, acquiring criminal property, operating without a licence and 14 counts of blackmail.

In November last year, he was ordered to repay £2.7m and stripped of his assets, including a luxury villa near Malaga.

A two-day hearing was due to take place at Warrington Crown Court last month, where his parents were to contest the confiscation order, claiming they owned a share in the villa.

However, an out-of-court settlement was agreed where Mr and Mrs Nicholson will be reimbursed an undisclosed sum once the property has been sold.

Cheshire Constabulary financial investigator Dennis Crosby told The Chronicle: “We’ve received evidence to suggest the villa was in three names including that of Paul Nicholson.

“As a result it was agreed that the parents’ contribution to that villa was that of just a remortgage when they remortgaged their own property in Halebank, Widnes.

“They agreed that was their one beneficiary interest in the property.”

Mr Crosby said Mr and Mrs Nicholson would not benefit from rental earnings – in excess of £10,000 – whilst they were living in the property.

They must vacate the villa in July.

Their son made his wealth preying on vulnerable residents in Runcorn and Widnes.

He loaned cash with extortionate interest rates of up to 100%and enforced payment with intimidation.

Nicholson threatened to petrol bomb one victim’s home and made another perform a sex act on him as payment in kind.

Another victim was advised to become a prostitute to keep up with payments, and in one instance he made a mother withdraw cash from her 11-year-old son’s bank account while he watched from a car armed with a baseball bat. He kept an arsenal of weapons, including a knuckle-duster and a knife.