<
p>Three employees of an award-winning firm have been jailed following an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading.
The Connells trio, including one branch manager, were sentenced yesterday after the OFT investigation revealed they had generated over £133,000 in illicit profit in a sophisticated property fraud scheme.
Between April 2009 and May 2011, Thomas Kelly, a Manager of the West Bromwich office, arranged for his wife to buy three repossessed properties, without directly informing the seller.
Behind the scenes, the pair forged signatures and hid the identity of the purchaser on the Firm’s internal audit process, before quickly selling all three properties for a profit of £98,500.
Following a tip off, the OFT investigated a further fraud and established that the third defendant, Andrew Butts, had acted as the estate agent for another repossessed home - which was bought by his brother-in-law in March 2010.
The OFT investigation was launched after Connells estate agency became aware of suspicious activity in their West Bromwich Office and reported their concerns to the OFT in late 2011.
Thomas Francis Kelly was sentenced to six months' imprisonment suspended for 12 months as well as a Community Supervision order for six months - to include 180 hours of unpaid work.
Samantha Jayne Kelly was sentenced to a six-month supervision order and Andrew Stephen Butts was sentenced to a conditional discharge for 12 months for his part in a similar scheme on another repossessed home.
Speaking on the successful trial, Stephen Blake, OFT Head of Criminal Enforcement, said: “It's vital the public can have confidence in the house buying market and that sellers can have confidence that the people entrusted to sell what will often be their most valuable asset will act in their best interests.
“The conduct of the convicted individuals in this case is particularly invidious, given that the properties in question had been repossessed. These prosecutions are a testament to how seriously the OFT takes this issue. Today's sentences should stand as a deterrent to any other estate agent who may be tempted to engage in this kind of deception in the future.”
Speaking on the ex-employees, Elizabeth Brown, Divisional Managing Director for Connells, said: “We do not tolerate any wrongdoing from staff and are very pleased with the outcome of this case. After alerting the OFT to the fraudulent activity, Connells fully supported and assisted with the investigation.
“Although these are isolated incidents, we will always carry out an investigation should malpractice be suspected and will report anyone found behaving against industry codes of conduct or Connells own robust compliance policies to the appropriate authorities.”
Three employees of an award-winning firm have been jailed following an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading.
1 Comments
David
This is another example of why Estate Agents need to be regulated by the FCA, It is completely foolish and illogical that Agents, who are generally the most expensive part of the process and who can easily distort a position, are unregulated.