Swindle made to pay - but jailed perhaps (8)
I believe the answer is:
confined
'jailed perhaps' is the definition.
(jailing is a kind of confining)
'swindle made' is the wordplay.
'swindle' becomes 'con' (con is a kind of swindle).
'made' becomes 'fined' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'con'+'fined'='CONFINED'
'to pay but' acts as a link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for confined that I've seen before include "Lacking freedom" , "Enclosed, cramped" , "deprived of freedom" , "not let out?" , "Not free to move about" .)