4th
May 2016
Following a successful prosecution, a letting agent was given a penal sentence for conning students out of deposits worth thousands of pounds for flats that they were unable to move into.
The letting agent ran the ‘sting’ on twelve unsuspecting students, mostly from overseas, and used the ill gotten gains to fund his gambling addictive lifestyle. Another unfortunate person wanted to purchase a house. The agent received a twelve month sentence when he pleaded guilty to thirteen charges of fraud.
The culprit started the scheme in last year’s summer months when working at a branch of a well know UK chain of estate agents. He placed online adverts of available student ‘digs’ and arranged viewings. After the prospective victims agreed to take the accommodation he then took bank transfer and cash deposits from the unwitting victims; on several occasions he took deposits for the same properties.
The prosecutor Paul Dhami informed the Warwickshire Crown Court, that: “All bar one were students who had come to study in the UK so English was their second language, and therefore there was a degree of vulnerability because he appeared to be bona fide. Some described him arriving in a white Bentley, giving the impression of being a successful businessman”.
The local newspaper that reported the case said that the letting agent had already received a conditional discharge for a fraud he had committed in 2014. This recent scam had made him £13,560.
When police became involved, after they had received several complaints about his actions, the man appeared at the police station in September 2015 and admitted to his fraudulent actions due to his gambling addiction.
At the hearing Judge Sylvia de Bertodano told him: “It is a great pity to see someone like you using your intelligence to defraud people in this way. There was significant planning in this fraud and a large number of victims. The message must go out that someone who uses their position to defraud vulnerable people in this way must go into custody.”
Needless to say the criminal has lost his job.
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