A woman working for an online estate agent has been convicted after pocketing £5,000 from a house sale.
Claire Lousie Ainsworth, 35, told the seller one price, but the buyer another.
She kept the difference after telling the seller that the buyer would pay £80,000, and the buyer that the seller would accept £85,000.
Ainsworth had pleaded not guilty to fraud by false representation but was convicted in her absence by Blackburn magistrates when she failed to turn up.
She has been bailed to Burnley Crown Court for sentencing on February 24.
Comments (11)
I know a multi-branch estate agency that does something very similar to this with ALL their vendors and buyers. How they have never been brought to light yet I will never know. It is disgusting and illegal.
So REPORT THEM THEN!!
nothing gets done unfortunately
You mean you have reported them?
How did this slip through the conveyancing process?
The newspaper report suggests that she convinced the buyer that the price was £80,000 on the contract plus £5,000 in cash to be paid to the seller via the agents (her).
I am not blaming the buyer but it is sad that they were naive enough to accept this and to not mention the “total” price, including the cash payment, to their conveyancer who, it is to be hoped, might have smelt a rat at that point. Or possibly, that is how this came to light – the report doesn’t shed any light on how she was caught.
Notification of sale to conveyancers …… h’mmmmmmm!
Ignoring the silly comment by EAMD172 which I guess to be a poor attempt at humour on a Monday morning this is a serious issue as fraud always is particularly if it directly affects you, a relative or someone you know. Unfortunately there is little substance to this article by PIE which is disappointing because even a little research online will confirm the person concerned is using her maiden name is the only remaining director/shareholder of this company and the only Agent in the village so pretty obvious who it is. I am no lawyer but on the basis that she has been found guilty in her absence then I believe reporting restrictions are lifted. To be fair EAN pretty much carried the same story so even they decided not to look any deeper as did rather strangely the local paper.
Makes you wonder how many times she didn’t get caught.
Also great to see that an ‘online agent’ doesn’t have a website and re-directs straight to their Rightmove page!
Horrendous… make an example of this fraudster.
Bet she was a ‘less than 1%’ agent