THE vice-chairman of Leyton Orient FC has been ordered to pay out a total of £17.8million to the founders of travel company Stagecoach.

Nicholas Levene, who has worked in the City for nearly 25 years, bought shares on behalf of brother and sister Ann Gloag and Brian Souter but allegedly failed to return the money.

A High Court judge ordered Mr Levene to pay the pair a total of £8.9m each as well as more than £12,000 in legal costs.

Their claim that Mr Levene did not return capital or profits linked to investments made in March in Xstrata and HSBC was upheld by Mr Justice Teare.

From June 30, Mr Levene was also ordered to pay a rate of £1,928.77 for every day the payment is late.

He has described the situation as a “misunderstanding” and said it has been “sorted out and paid”.

But a spokesman for the siblings said lawyers acting on their behalf did not know of any payment as of July 20.

Ms Gloag, 66, and Mr Souter, 54, hold a stake worth about £209m in Perth-based Stagecoach.

They are reportedly worth about £473m, and Ms Gloag, a well-known philanthropist, is said to be Scotland's richest woman.

Stagecoach has 30,000 employees in Britain, the US and Canada and a turnover of £1.8billion.