Estate agent lied in £5,000 house price fraud
CHRIS GEE
ACROOKED estate agent conned £5,000 from a house seller after lying about the selling price of a property, a court has heard.
Described as a ‘decent and talented’ businesswoman, Claire Louise Ainsworth, 35, runs Oswaldtwistle based UK Online Agents Ltd.
Burnley Crown Court heard ‘pure greed’ led to Ainsworth, of New Lane, Oswaldtwistle, defrauding client and friend Jennifer Scott after saying she had sold her house for £80,000 when in fact she had concluded a deal for £85,000, pocketing the difference for herself.
Prosecutor Stephen Parker told the court that Mrs Scott, 69, had worked with Ainsworth on property deals before and considered her a friend who she confided in.
Ainsworth had been tasked with selling Mrs Scott’s house on Whalley Road in Accrington in December 2018.
Mr Parker said: “She told Mrs Scott that the selling price was £80,000 while telling the purchaser that the price was £80,000 plus an additional £5,000 in cash.”
Mr Parker said that when Mrs Scott later visited her former home to pick up any post she met the new owner who mentioned the £5,000 in cash.
Mrs Scott then replied ‘I don’t know what you’re on about’.
Police were called and in interview after her arrest Ainsworth denied any fraud.
Ainsworth, who denied the charge, was convicted in her absence of one count of fraud by false representation when she failed to turn up for her scheduled trial last month.
She had no previous convictions.
Mr Parker read an impact statement from Mrs Scott in which she said she felt ‘totally betrayed’ by Ainsworth who ‘ took advantage of my vulnerability’.
She added: “I’m often tearful about it.
“I can’t understand why she would do this to me. I’m sure that the stress of this caused a severe attack of shingles and my weight has dropped to seven stone.”
Defending, Christopher Hudson, said his client was a mother of two young children and her conviction had been ‘catastrophic for her family and her business’, which he said had now been wound down.
He said Ainsworth had later transferred back £4,000 of the cash taken to the house buyer on the advice of a solicitor.
He said: “She is a decent and talented estate agent. The business was very successful. She built it up and now she’s knocked it down with self-induced greed. “This was a one-off. “She essentially is the business as photographer, valuer and negotiator so it has now come to an end. It has no assets.”
Recorder Mary Prior QC told Ainsworth that she had ‘lied to everybody’ about the house sale and that her motive was greed as she was not in dire straits financially and at the time of the offence and was ‘in a good place in her life’.
She said: “Nobody now is going deal with an estate agent with a conviction for fraud.”
Ainsworth was sentenced to a nine month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months and ordered to perform 200 hours of unpaid work.
She was also ordered to pay £5,000 in compensation to Mrs Scott.