An agent who hung on to thousands of pounds of tenants’ deposits has been jailed.
The case appears to highlight deep-seated flaws in tenancy deposit laws.
After a long-running saga, Helen Gregory, 55, of Chesterfield, was finally sentenced yesterday.
She received ten months in prison at Derby Crown Court but will serve only half behind bars.
However, it is uncertain what her victims will get back.
According to the Derbyshire Times, the paper was contacted by anxious customers in November 2012 after tenants’ attempts to withdraw money from the Deposit Protection Service were unsuccessful.
Gregory – who owned Beechwood Lettings, Beechwood Property Portfolio, and Letzlet, all in Derbyshire – admitted three charges of engaging in unfair commercial practices last August.
She had initially been due to be sentenced in September, but sentencing was delayed due to reassurances that she would repay the £67,000 owed.
The prosecution was brought by Trading Standards with charges relating to a period spanning April 2007 to October 2012.
Yesterday, the court heard that no money has yet been repaid – despite over £40,000 being paid into her account by another business as late as December 2014 and January this year, according to one local newspaper report.
Judge John Burgess said: “There are victims who are quite understandably furious. Not just that they lost their money, but the case has been strung out for two years or more.
“It sticks in the throat that someone could buy themselves out of a custodial sentence.
“This is a case of promises, promises, promises being made and not kept.”
Gregory will serve half of her ten-month sentence in custody. She has also been banned from being a company director for six years.
A proceeds of crime hearing has been set for September 10.
In February 2012, the Property Ombudsman expelled Beechwood after it failed to pay an award made against it, and had delayed paying rent into a complainant landlord’s account on 12 occasions over a period of 19 months.
A month later, TPO said Beechwood Property Portfolio was illegally displaying the TPO logos for both sales and lettings, despite not belonging to a redress scheme. The firm was continuing to sell homes.
TPO had earlier delayed the expulsion of Letzlet, trading as Beechwood Lettings, while the complainant landlord was helped to obtain a county court judgment of £2,176.
Only this week, Eye reported on an agent, Sweet Property Services in Rochester, Kent, which appears to have closed down amid missing tenancy deposit money which tenants thought had been paid in to the DPS. However, the DPS said the agent concerned had never protected a deposit with them.
While Helen Gregory has been banned as a director and could possibly be banned as an estate agent under the Estate Agents Act, there is nothing in law to stop her working in the lettings industry.
Comments (6)
Surely anyone caught stealing in this way should be banned from being a company director for life. Leopards don’t change their spots…..
There’s a really simple solution to this:
1 – Ban agents from taking deposits directly
2 – Shake up deposit services to make them more real time
3 – Make tenants pay bond directly to DPS, etc.
4 – DPS, etc. immediately send confirmation to agent
5 – Tenant can move in
6 – Agent cannot steal deposit
Am I missing something, or would this work?
Or ensure that every agent is a member of SafeAgent and/or has Client Money Protection Insurance and that this can easily be checked / policed !
Trevor – how have you managed to turn this story into an argument about ‘budget’ estate agency models?
It has nothing to do with it. Beechwood were a high street agency with very prominent offices.
The next flow of problems hitting the news will be the unregulated ”property guru’s” who prey on the retired to release pensions into dodgy property scams.
Which will leave more innocent retired people with no savings to fall back on in old age.
Its not the majority of good agents, people need worry about. Its the roggue traders or lack of ‘legislation understanding’ small time private operatives who ring the biggest alarm bells.
Additionally, many private investor property clubs are run by dubious types who operate with front guys outside redress.
The industry in parts is a real mess. If hard working I feel sorry that this agent felt she had to resort to such measures.
But the banks are barstewards and portals continue to allow in budget models.
With many private landlords now able to access main portals via budget operatives, and able to use tech in the way agents do.
How many private landlords are doing much the same going un-noticed.
Our industry needs a ****** good shake up.