A tenant who posed as a landlord to sell a luxury property he was renting has been jailed for three years.
Forty-three-year-old Steven Rice fraudulently sold the home in London’s Kensington and Chelsea for £1.47 million, which was just half of its real value.
Southwark Crown Court heard how Rice moved into the luxury home on Donne Place using the false name of Stuart Knight.
He faxed a copy of a fake passport to estate agent Knight Frank, which was acting as the lettings agent.
He moved into the three-storey house in South West London, changed the locks and hired a special ‘facilitator’ to organise a quick sale.
Rice, who owns a yacht company, then posed as 83-year-old property owner and former Olympic yachtsman Vernon Stratton to put the house on the market and then sold it.
The conman was caught at a Halifax branch in March this year, after trying to transfer the cash from the sale to Dubai.
Rice had set up a fraudulent account with Halifax in the landlord’s name, to pay in the money, and staff became suspicious when he presented them with a fake driving licence in Mr Stratton’s name.
He was jailed for three years after admitting possession of a fake driving licence, a fake passport and acquiring criminal property.
The conman was found to be working as part of a gang, in what was described as a “skilful, orchestrated and planned fraud” by prosecutor Gavin Ludlow Thompson.
He said: “This case involves the plundering of innocent persons' identities on a grand scale.”
• A landlord has been fined for putting the lives of his tenants and others at risk by illegally fitting a gas boiler.
Richard Elliot, of Pennsylvania Road, Exeter pleaded guilty to two breaches of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations (1998) when he appeared before Honiton Magistrates’ Court.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation revealed that when Elliot was installing a new boiler at a flat in Old Tiverton Road, Exeter, he failed to safely isolate and cap the live gas pipe, and left the work partially completed.
The tenant of the flat, a grandmother, was visited by her young grandchildren, aged five and seven, on a daily basis, before concerns about the safety of the new boiler were raised by a visiting officer from Exeter City Council.
Elliot was fined a total of £4,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,787, including £15 to the victim compensation fund.
After the case, HSE Inspector, Simon Jones, said: “The pipework left in the flat was extremely dangerous and could have led to a major gas explosion if one of the children had simply twisted the valve to let the gas escape.
“Working with gas supplies is a specialised job and must only be carried out by trained engineers who are members of the Gas Safe Register, to minimise any risk of death or serious injury resulting from gas leaks or explosions.”
