A crooked managing agent has been jailed for four years and banned from being a company director for seven.

Mark Postle-Hacon, 41, ran PHC Management in Plymouth, and stole over £360,000 to fund his lifestyle and prop up his business.

He switched residents’ money which should have been used to pay utility bills, insurance, gardening and cleaning, into his own bank accounts, and faked documents to cover his tracks.

In court, he admitted defrauding residents and developers, and fraudulent trading.

His firm managed at least nine apartment blocks.

The alarm was raised by the company which owned one development and which noticed that invoices for which money had been handed over were unpaid.

The prosecution said Postle-Hacon gave repeated excuses and faked a bank statement, insisting there were funds in the management account.

The total lost in the frauds was £360,492, but investigators could not find any assets, and Judge Graham Cottle was forced to order a token £50 to be confiscated.

The court heard that Postle-Hacon, known locally as a socialite, had lost his home and marriage.

Simon Ralph, defending, described him as a “fundamentally honest man who has made a colossal error”. He said that Postle-Hacon was of previous good character and had an offer of a job if spared jail.

However, the judge at Plymouth Crown Court said he was evasive and dishonest.

He told Postle-Hacon: “There is a significant element of dishonesty and personal gain in your actions over a sustained period, causing considerable losses to a large number of individuals and there are no means whatsoever or making good those losses.”