The fraud resulted in losses to investors of more than £1.5m, with the defendants pocketing more than £2.8m. 

Audrey Osbourn, who also ran a mortgage broker firm, was found guilty of multiple counts of fraud and money laundering offences. Her sons Gary Moore, Clayton Moore and Ian Moore were also found guilty and sentenced to jail. 

Osbourn, Gary and Clayton were sentenced to three years in prison, while Ian was sentenced to two years and four months. 

The charges included fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and obtaining a money transfer by deception. 

Osbourn’s firm Credence Finance Limited was used to submit false declarations of income in mortgage applications. 

Sponsored

Going digital

Sponsored by Halifax Intermediaries

Friends of the family, employees and clients of Credence also invested around £20,000 to £140,000 each in the defendants’ company Dreamscape Homes. Some of the investors remortgaged their own homes to raise the money needed for the investment and received share certificates in return. However, none of the investors received a return as the land was never developed. 

The four went to trial and plead guilty to the same charges in 2021 but this was challenged in the Court of Appeal and retried.

 

CPS: ‘Victims suffered financial hardship, heartbreak and distress’

Gurminder Sanghera, senior legal manager at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: “Between them, Audrey Osbourn and her sons committed multiple offences of fraud and money laundering through dishonesty, misleading mortgage providers and betraying the trust placed in them by friends, employees and customers. They did so for their own personal benefit.  

“The victims suffered financial hardship as a consequence of the defendants’ greed. Others described the emotional heartbreak and distress caused to them and their families. 

“We will now pursue confiscation proceedings against them to ensure they have not benefitted from their criminal conduct and, if possible, to compensate the victims.”