27th
Dec 2015
The BBC has uncovered a story that the police are on the prowl for a Bristol conman who masqueraded as a landlord, and scammed at least several people out of thousands of pounds.
The four unlucky potential tenants each gave the conman in the region of £1,100 in deposits and rent for the one studio flat in a suburb of Bristol.
Upon trying to move in on their supposed day of starting their tenancy, they all faced each other and there was no trace of the ‘landlord’ who had run off with their money. They soon discovered that the flat is owned by someone else.
The BBC has found out that the fraudster is an Eastern European, who apparently could not speak English and had someone else secure the flat on his behalf.
The conman owes a month’s rent and left the property with just a few possessions.
The unlucky victims of the scam are all from Eastern Europe and were contacted online by the ‘supposed’ landlord. They were all told that they could access the flat from December 3rd.
Needless to say not one of them has been contacted by the conman and he has not replied to any of the BBC’s questions.
The BBC spoke to two of the victims.
A forklift truck operator said that he has given away his "full monthly wage" and said: "It [had] a big impact on me because I was struggling to get to the end of the month because I have no money or anything,”
A woman who is a cleaner in a bank has sadly lost all of her savings and through a translator told the BBC that: "He harmed a lot of people just before Christmas, and he made himself a Christmas present out of some other people's misery."
The flat was for her and her daughter.
The Avon and Somerset Police are trying to track down the conman and asks anybody who may have been conned should contact them immediately.
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