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    Donald Scott    A PROMINENT Cumbrian estate agent responsible for a £450,000 fraud has been warned he may be jailed. At Carlisle Crown Court, a judge issued the warning to 62-year-old Donald George Scott, who was also a trusted land agent in Wigton, after he entered guilty pleas to 13 charges of fraud. By forging the signatures of his victims, Scott was able to sell so-called “entitlements” to their farmland – legal covenants which entitle the owner to European Union subsidy payments. He also took large sums of money from other customers who wrongly believed they were buying subsidy rights. Prosecutor Lucy Wright said: “It is the crown’s case that Mr Scott, while working as a land agent and estate agent, committed fraud against those who entrusted him to look after their entitlements. “He did this either by selling them without their knowledge, or by failing to invest money given to him to buy those entitlements. That was the...

Russell Baker pleaded guilty on Friday 19 February 2016 to nine offences of fraud in relation to his former estate agency business in Bovey Tracey, Devon. Exeter Crown Court was told by Tom Bradnock, counsel for Devon & Somerset Trading Standards Service, about how Russell Baker, 58, of Ilsington, Newton Abbot, bought a well-known Estate Agents business called Ashby’s.  He then created a web of limited companies through which he operated the business. A significant part of Bakers business was the letting out of properties on behalf of landlords. As part of that process the tenants would hand over a deposit, usually the equivalent of a month’s rent.  Tenancy deposits are meant to be passed to a government approved scheme to ensure that the deposit is properly protected but the deposits never reached the scheme, Baker simply pocketed the money. A number of landlords also allowed Baker to manage their properties for them but they found that they weren’t receivi...

When a TV documentary from channel 4 aired early this year , it involved under cover reporters , emphasising london's property boom is partly being funded, by overseas buyers, laundering money. Two undercover reporters posed as unscrupulous Russian government official called “Boris” and his mistress “Nastya” whom he wanted to purchase an upmarket property in London for. The couple [featured in video below]– Russian anti-corruption campaigner Roman Borisovich and Ukrainian investigative reporter Natalia Sedletska – viewed five properties ranging in price from £3m to £15m, on the market with five different west London agents, in Kensington, Chelsea and Notting Hill. Despite being made aware they were dealing with ill-gotten gains, the estate agents agreed to continue with a potential purchase. In several instances the estate agents recommended law firms to help a buyer hide his identity. One estate agent named a “very, very good lawyer … the last person I ...