An independent financial adviser motivated by ‘shameless greed’ was convicted of two counts of fraud after tricking a pensioner out of her £650,000 home in Hampstead.
An Evening Standard report explained that financial adviser Tony Trivett remortgaged Rosemary Straker’s home and withdrew £46,000 within two weeks of a “sophisticated and audacious” deception, as the recorder badged it, spending the cash on a two-week luxury holiday in Thailand.
Blackfriars crown court heard Straker had agreed to give Trivett 5% of the proceeds once the flat was sold after her death, in return for clearing her mortgage. However, Trivett put the property, which she shared with her son and a lodger, in his name, remortgaged it for £425,000 and disappeared.
Straker was left with just £15,000 instead of the expected half a million pounds and faces repossession as Trivett has subsequently defaulted on the mortgage. Trivett has since fled and was convicted of two counts of fraud in his absence yesterday.
Recorder Nicola Shannon said: “It represented her [Straker’s] current and future security and she hoped to pass it on to her son. She worked very hard for many years to buy the property.
“Trivett exploited her trust for financial gain. He bamboozled her and took the property from under her nose. His callous disregard, patronising manipulation and sheer greed is expressed by him even reneging on giving her £15,000 of the £30,000 she expected for improvements.”
A warrant remains outstanding for Trivett’s arrest.
Victoria Hartley is contributing editor at Mortgage Solutions, Specialist Lending Solutions, Your Money and Your Mortgage at London-based publishing company AE3 Media.
She has an MA in Radio from Goldsmiths after gaining a 2:1 in a Comparative American Studies BA at Warwick University. She also holds a TEFL qualification and taught overseas in Mexico and Japan from 1994 to 1997.
Her role includes editorial oversight of the news, analysis and features, event content management and strategic and editorial consultancy for the AE3 Media group. She is an experienced video, broadcast and live-event host and regularly chairs web and podcast debates and interviews.
Multiple award nominations have resulted in two wins: Santander Media Awards, trade journalist of the year and Headlinemoney Awards, mortgage journalist of the year (B2B). Here is one of the award-winning pieces: https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/news/2011/07/21/exclusive-tale-bailey-fraud-witness/
Previous roles include editorships of Mortgage Solutions, consumer title What Mortgage and trade title Credit Today as well as a stint freelancing for a variety of outlets including The Guardian and Which? Money.
