A mother and daughter whose letting agency featured in a BBC Inside Out investigation are awaiting sentencing after defrauding tenants and landlords of an estimated £266,000.
Angela Treneer, 72, originally denied four allegations of fraud and had been due to stand trial on Monday at Crown Court in Truro – the Cornish town where Premier Property Management operated.
At the last minute she pleaded guilty to a charge of fraud by abuse of position.
Her daughter Elizabeth Treneer, a former ARLA member and co-owner of the firm, had already admitted three charges – two of participating in a fraudulent business and one of perverting the course of justice – at an earlier hearing.
Both women have admitted they pocketed rent and tenants’ deposits over a period of eight years.
The mother’s benefit was put at £110,000.
The pair have been granted bail ahead of sentencing at Truro Crown Court.
They have been told that all sentencing options remain open.
The BBC programme was shown in February 2017.
The programme highlighted Premier Property Management’s failure to return deposits and pass on rents, and appeared to show it was still trading despite having been expelled from a redress scheme.
The firm had already been the subject of complaints to The Property Ombudsman, which expelled it from membership in 2016, initially for two years which was extended after more cases.
Seven awards were ordered to be paid by TPO, but none was ever paid.
Ombudsman extends expulsion time of rogue agency – but will this help victims?
Comments (3)
Things fell apart in august 2015. Despite claiming verbally, on their website and letterhead to be members of Arla, and listed on Arla’s online membership list Arla then said the were not members. They had been expelled a couple of years earlier but Arla did not tell anyone and kept them on their website because they were qualified as Arla inventory takers??? A year or two later after they had closed shop and run away they grandly announced they were removing the listing from their website…
Once Premier Property had been given the opportunity to put things right complaints became valid with the Property Ombudsman in about December 2015. Despite Premier Property admitting fault and not paying the money at every stage it took the Ombudsman six months of giving them more chances before they ruled against them. But that ruling was then suspended while they were send to their higher up membership committee which took yet more months.
You can’t take them to the small claims court without abandoning your Ombudsman complaint which seemed to drag on forever. By the time they expelled them after about a year from the start and thus finally finished ruling on the complaints so they could be used in a court the letting agent had closed their rented office and fled into hiding.
Thus all the Property Ombudsman achieved was to delay the agent from being exposed, shield them from court and prolong their collapse by a year while they carried on taking tenants money and not passing it on to the landlords, tens of thousands of extra pounds. Not that the ombudsman wasn’t professional and polite to deal with, they just never seemed to do anything. They must have known they had lots of complaints and seen something was seriously wrong, but the individuals complainants had no way of knowing there were many others in the same boat.
Trading Standards then managed to get hold of the accounts, rounded up the victims, and while it has taken years they have brought them to court and frozen their assets. As the mother owns a house there is a chance there will be some restitution.
So well done Cornwall Trading Standards who have surprised me by doing well. And rhubarbs to Arla and TPO who I really feel made things much worse.
Yes I agree, ‘porridge’ for a significant period.
Totally agree with Fraud description as Theft, but also – both their houses need to be confiscated as proceeds of crime if they don’t find another way to repay the full amount AND do some time.
One point it makes clear, is the total inadequacy of the Property Redress Scheme, its like Licensing for Landlords – makes a lot of money for those that comply, but is totally ineffective against those that abuse the law.
Where have the Local Authority Trading Standards been in not prosecuting the agency for operating without being a member of a Redress scheme.
In short, a ‘shambles’ !
Go to Jail x 2!
Reimburse fully financially all those out of pocket – Fraud is just a posh description of Theft!