Fraudster sold house by taking her victim’s name
AFRAUDSTER has been jailed after changing her name by deed poll to sell a £75,000 house – without the real owner knowing.
Sarah Broadbelt took out a passport under her new identity of Marion Patterson – the name of the legal owner –to dupe the authorities dealing with the sale.
The scam was only rumbled when the real Marion tried to sell the property – and was told it had been sold four months earlier.
Now Broadbelt, 32, of Fledborough Close, Sutton Coldfield, has been jailed for 20 months, having previously admitted charges of fraud and possessing a false identity document.
Jane Sarginson, prosecuting, told Birmingham Crown Court it was a “brazen and calculated” fraud that “struck at the heart of the conveyancing system”.
Passing sentence, Judge Michael Chambers QC told her: “You played a prominent role in a sophisticated fraud to deprive the owner of the house of its ownership.”
The court heard the real Marion had the house in Welsh House Farm Road, Quinton, valued at up to £200,000, having rented out the home since 1993 when she moved to Cornwall.
Ms Sarginson said: “On February 22, 2016, an estate agent rang up and told her her house had been stolen.”
She said it had been sold to a buyer in October 2015 for £75,000.
The fraud was carried out after Broadbelt changed her name by deed to Marion Patterson and obtained a passport in the owner’s name.
A few days later she obtained a second passport to distance herself from the name change. The false document was then used by her to open accounts with Halifax and Barclays.
Miss Sarginson said Broadbelt went to a firm of solicitors so the could be carried out.
The firm noted that documents showed she bought the property when she was six, but she managed to persuade them there was a trust in place.
The proceeds were sent to the accounts that had been opened and were withdrawn in large sums over the course of five to six days.
Miss Sarginson said, since the fraud had been uncovered, the property had been restored to its owner, while the person who bought it had been reimbursed. also sale