Robert Harwood, aged 55, who initially pleaded not guilty changed his mind to eventually plead guilty at the crown court in Leamington Spa to two alternative offences of theft.
According to the Coventry Telegraph, prosecutor Neil Bannister said that in 2006 a couple called Dickinson decided to set up a small business running a cattery, and borrowed £70,000 from a friend.
Unable to borrow from a High Street bank, they decided to try a mortgage broker and turned to Harwood’s business Roche Commercial. He went to their home where they completed a mortgage application form and paid a £345 fee to him.
Harwood asked for £1,600 for a valuation on a cattery, which was paid for but never took place and the purchase fell through. On another cattery, Harwood told tghe couple he had found a lender in Germany willing to give them a mortgage. The Dickinsons initially paid Harwood a £2,000 “advance” to confirm their interest.
Harwood then told them the mortgage was about to come through, and that they would have to pay a deposit of £53,133. But when the couple then sent documents to the supposed loan company they were returned with an indication that neither the company nor the address existed.
Eventually, Harwood put them in touch with a new lender who agreed to give them a mortgage – but with the original money still outstanding the deal stalled and the second mortgage offer was withdrawn.
Eventually, in November 2007, Harwood repaid £41,500 of the money, but £11,633 remains outstanding.
In June 2009, a second customer, Robert Holt, the manager of two funeral homes which were part of a chain owned by his father, approached Roche Commercial to help him buy his Dad out of the business when he retired.
After indicating he had found three lenders, Harwood asked for an initial fee of £345 from Holt and then a further £1,586 which was paid in July, followed by £450 for a valuation of the businesses.
But Holt became suspicious about the competence of the surveyor and discovered that the firm he was said to work for did not appear to exist.
Sophie Murray, defending said the offences were not fraudulent from the outset, and he would have paid the money back if his business had not folded.
Jailing Harwood and ordering him to pay compensation of £11,633 to Mrs Dickinson and £2,356 to Mr Holt, Recorder David Pittaway QC told him: “These are, in my view, particularly nasty offences.”
Source: Coventry Telegraph
