Following a prison sentence, famous ex con man Juergen Harksen will be paying off standing debts to those he tricked at a rate of 100 euros a month.

Hamburg -- Juergen Harksen, 47, the confidence trickster who scammed German investors for millions of dollars and lived a life of luxury in Cape Town, told a German newspaper on Saturday he was beginning repayments this month at 100 euros monthly.

Harksen was pictured in the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper with his new wife Claudia, a South African model.

He told the paper he was working as a wine salesman after completing his sentence of six years and nine months in custody in february. He is also writing a second book. After the first, about his frauds, this one will describe life in a German jail.

The German's jet-set lifestyle in Hamburg and Cape Town persuaded celebrities that he was a financial genius. The Hamburg court which convicted him calculated that they "invested" 50 million euros in his "funds." He only repaid 37 million euros.

"I owe millions. I don't know exactly how much. I once calculated it. From May I'm repaying 100 euros a month to creditors," he said.

Asked by the Abendblatt if he had hidden funds, Harksen said, "I spent it on luxury: houses, jewellery, cars, a motor yacht, a jet. A lot was seized in South Africa." He denied any plans to return to crime, saying, "I've had my fun."

Harksen was extradited from South Africa to Germany in October 2002 and jailed for fraud in 2003, with previous custody credited to his sentence but no parole.

DPA