An estate agent has been jailed for 18 months after he took out loans totalling £30,000 in the name of a woman whose house he was selling.
James Beck, 39, of Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, was working for an unnamed estate agency in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, when he used the woman’s details to open a bank account and take out two loans of £15,000.
The offences occurred in October 2016 when Beck was living in the town.
He used some of the money to pay for a family holiday to Mexico.
When Beck was arrested he replied “No comment” in interview, say police.
It was later discovered that Beck fraudulently used his wife’s chequebook and her credit card. These offences occurred between last June and September.
While on bail, Beck fled to South Africa in an attempt to evade police but was arrested at Heathrow on January 10 and remanded in custody.
He was charged with nine counts of fraud and two counts of stealing bank loan funds totalling £30,000.
Beck, pictured, pleaded guilty to all of the offences at St Albans Crown Court last month and has now been sentenced by Judge Andrew Bright who told him that he had abused his position of trust as an estate agent.
He added: “You are a deeply devious and dishonest human being.”
Comments (7)
Beck was our agent for 3 months. In that time he proved himself to be cocky and arrogant and totally untrustworthy. He never once did what he promised he would do. We complained to Beck’s boss at Knight Frank in Berkhamstead and were fobbed of. When eventually we advised that we had completely lost confidence in Beck and that we wanted to terminate the arrangement with KF we were told that we had to give at least 28 days notice of termination – so were required to continue using what we now know to be a fraudulent agent for a further month !!! Good one Knight Frank – thanks.
I hope there is a lot missing from this story…otherwise who was incompetent enough to let a man steal a woman’s identity and steal money in her name?
Worked at Knight Frank in Berkhamsted. Seemed a really pleasant chap….Just goes to show how convincing a con can be!!
No place for this in any industry. I think someone who is deeply devious and dishonest may have also lied about his age. Tough paper round?
Jailed for 18 months… out in nine at most. First offence – or TWENTY-first?
And will he be at ‘it again’ by the early part of next year? – same 5h!t, just in a different place…
Look on the bright side PeeBee.
The Judge used this selection of words…. “his position of trust as an estate agent.”
That’s a positive for Estate Agents… a judge commenting on the trustworthy nature of our profession!
Slogans for Car Stickers please!
Heaven help the judge if the Dom & Duck show find his twitter account. They’ll be trolling him into the middle of next year for suggesting agents are trustworthy.