Property con couple told to pay back profit
Pair to stump up £4k each
MARRIED fraudsters convicted after Scotland’s longest criminal trial have been ordered to pay back the profits of their crimes.
Edwin McLaren, 56, conned dozens of people in financial difficulty between 2008 and 2012.
His wife, Lorraine, 65, was also convicted of two charges including one of mortgage fraud.
McLaren enlisted people to act as purchasers; arranged the mortgages and convinced his victims to sign documents transferring their homes over to these associates.
But, the proceeds from the sales were paid or transferred into McLaren’s bank accounts and used to fund further frauds and McLaren’s lavish lifestyle.
This included leasing a Bentley Continental and paying the mortgage on the £750,000 family home in Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire, which is for sale for £520,000. It’s not known if the house was repossessed.
Yesterday the couple were made subject to Confiscation Orders at the High Court in Edinburgh.
The order shows McLaren was estimated to have benefited from his criminal conduct by £1,722,366.64 and an order has been made for £4000.
His wife was estimated to have benefited by £694,950 and an order has been made for £4,213.38.
These are based on assets available. The Crown has the power to extend the order to seize money and assets the McLarens acquire in the future to pay back the full amount they made from their crimes.
McLaren was jailed for 11 years in 2017 for his involvement in the £1.6million fraud scheme.
He was found guilty of 29 charges at a trial at the High Court in Glasgow that heard evidence on 320 days.
Lorraine was found guilty of making a fraudulent mortgage application on their own home and money laundering a sum of £128,000. She was sentenced to 30 months but freed after nine months.