Court orders agent who stole £221,000 from landlords and tenants to repay just £50

A Proceeds of Crime case has resulted in the recovery of just £50 out of £221,000 stolen from members of the public by a crooked letting agent.

Martin Marcus was jailed for four and a half years last July at Harrow Crown Court.

His victims were dozens of tenants and landlords who lost rents and deposits.

Marcus, who admitted five counts of fraud following a complex four-year investigation by Barnet Council’s Trading Standards Team, had fronted a string of letting agencies and used numerous aliases between 2009 and 2015 to pocket the cash.

Barnet has now gone back to court in a Proceeds of Crime hearing, with the confiscation order made on February 1.

On Monday this week, Trading Standards officer Jack Dowler emailed Marcus’s victims, saying: “Unfortunately despite an in-depth investigation by our financial investigation team, we were unable to identify any assets for Mr Marcus.

“Therefore the court were only able to impose a nominal amount. We are very disappointed in this as we had hoped to be able to recover some of the money that Mr Marcus fraudulently appropriated.

“I am sorry that I do not have a more positive outcome in this matter.”

One of his victims who expressed fury is a landlord owed more than £40,000 and whose rental property had been designed to fund care bills for the person who is now her late mother.

She said : “The order is a total disrespect to many of those who fell victims of Mr Marcus fraud.”

She also queried why it had taken Barnet Council almost two months to inform the victims.

EYE has also invited Barnet Council to comment.

Marcus repeatedly offered tenants properties he had no right to let out, took deposits from multiple tenants for the same property, moved in different tenants than those promised, and used a variety of methods and excuses to hold on to thousands in deposits and rents.

Prior to sentencing, the court heard impact statements from victims describing how the scam had left some of them tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket, and some without a home.

Marcus used a number of company names including JMG Residential, Interlocate, Corporate Relocation and Churchill Residential, while aliases included the names Jeffrey Lewis, Martin Champ and Robert Martin.

In some cases, other letting agents had complained to Marcus about him lifting photos of properties they were advertising, and then marketing the properties himself.

At last year’s six-week trial, four other defendants, Nadim Khan, Michael Page, James Day and Stacey Heffernan, were found not guilty of the same charges and Marcus’s wife Corinne Marcus was acquitted of a charge of money laundering.

Serial fraudster who ran string of letting agencies jailed for four and a half years

 

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7 Comments

  1. eltell

    Disgraceful.

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  2. Emmersons46

    This happens quite often with Confiscation hearings because if the criminal has no assets then he/she cannot be ordered to pay anything there and then. However the Order lasts for life, so if the criminal acquires assets at anytime the issue can be re-visited.

     

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  3. Oliver Wharmby

    Another CMP case study.

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    1. pierce

      can you tell us how many agents over the last two years have been CONVICTED of theft/fraud?

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  4. gk1uk2001

    I remember many years ago working for an agent where I thought the owner was up to no good (not saying he was doing what this guy did but sometimes you just get a feeling about someone) due to the fact that he was always very shady and seemed to be constantly moving large sums of money around between his businesses and paid us by cheque, many of which used to bounce. During a conversation with him it came to light that he didn’t own the massive house he lived in, it was rented, and all of his flash cars (2 Porsches, 2 high end Mercs and a top of the range X5) were also not owned and were on rental agreements. When I asked him why he rented a house which seemed bizarre as he owned a multi branch estate agency his response was “so that if I ever get caught out there’s nothing they can take away from me, I’ll still have my home and my cars”. Absolutely staggering. This seems to be a loophole that needs to be filled somehow. Needless to say I left there after a couple of months and moved to a ‘proper’ agent where nothing underhand appeared to be going on, we got paid on time by bank transfer and there was a general good feeling about the place..

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  5. Headache

    Who do we complain to about Trading Standards ?

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  6. Emmersons46

    Only insurance can fill the gap so those who suffer loss are compensated.

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