A convicted fraudster who masqueraded as a freeholder and took over £10,000 of potential tenant deposits is still at large.
Last month, James Bennett was found guilty of 17 counts of fraud and sentenced to six years in prison. After he failed to appear in court for his conviction, a warrant was issued for his arrest.
The fraudster had listed several flats he had no right to let on a property website, in a number of different London locations.
In many of the cases, the prospective tenants only discovered that they had fallen victim to a crime when they arrived to move in.
Whilst taking holding deposits of up to £725, Bennett was in the process of being evicted from the flats and had no right to let them out.
Speaking to EYE, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that Bennett remains on the run.
SpareRoom, the website where the fraudster listed the flats also issued a statement to EYE, stressing that every ad on the site is vetted by their moderation team.
They stated: “Thankfully it’s incredibly rare for our users to encounter any problems and, to date, over 7m people have had a safe and positive experience using SpareRoom to find a flat share.
“In this instance we were able to cooperate with police to make sure the person in question was identified and convicted.”
