An estate agent who was conned into handing over £40,000 to a couple who had viewed a property, subsequently had to sell his family home.
The couple behind the fraud, Jason and Nicole Shifrin, have now been sentenced.
Jason Shifrin has been sentenced to three years and ten months in prison after being found guilty of fraud by false representation following a trial at Harrow Crown Court.
His wife was found guilty of converting criminal property and handed a community order. She was ordered to carry out a maximum of 300 hours unpaid work, to be completed within two years.
The court heard that in December 2016, the couple – using the false surname of Shaw – arranged a viewing of a high value property.
Following the viewing, Jason Shifrin spoke to the estate agent about an investment opportunity, involving gold, which would see the agent invest £40,000.
He was told he would receive this back just a few days later, along with an extra £15,000.
The victim deposited the money into the bank account of Nicole Shifrin and almost immediately over £20,000 was spent on a luxury holiday to the US and Mexico.
While at the airport, the couple also used the money to buy a Chanel purse at a cost of £690.
When the victim called Jason Shifrin to ask about his investment, he was provided with a number of excuses for not receiving his money back.
This included being sent a fake text message which purported to be from the bank, stating that the money had already been transferred back to the victim.
He reported the incident to Action Fraud and the case was later passed to the Met’s Falcon Team, who launched an investigation.
In the course of their enquiries, officers found that Jason Shifrin had given the victim two stones, which appeared to be diamonds, as collateral for his money.
When police submitted these to an expert, they were found to be practically worthless cubic zirconia.
The couple were arrested at their home address and initially denied all offences.
DC Paul Allgood, of the Met’s Fraud and Linked Crime Online (Falcon) unit, said: “The couple managed to persuade an innocent victim to hand over a significant amount of his own money on the premise he was making a solid investment.
“The victim and his family suffered emotionally and financially over the Christmas period, and had to sell their home.
“Our investigation exposed their criminal activities and we hope this sentence acts as a deterrent to anyone thinking of exploiting others for their own financial gain.”
Gullibility and greed are dangerous bedfellows.
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If you look you’ll find that the word gullible has been taken out of the dictionary
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Perhaps, buy “Gullible” has not – Spelling !
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Hope he didn’t use tenants deposits .
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How gullible was this moron? There really ought to be custodial penalties for stupidity.
And this guy is supposed to be competent in negotiating the sale of clients’ assets…
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If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is! a £15k return after a few days? Nope, not interested, it sounds too good to be true!
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Rope a Dope….
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Still a better investment than purple bricks!!!
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Bit harsh on the poor fella, think he feels silly enough.
He was conned, could happen to any of us.Hope he recovers.
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I was recently approached with an amazing business proposition by a Nigerian Prince, but his Purple Rain was rubbish so I didn’t bother.
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A quick google of these deceitful couple show how bad they are and how long they have been doing this.
https://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/278469/We-owed-gangsters-7million
Story was 7 years ago …. They have not learnt.
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What an absolute plank. I have very little sympathy for him, anyone with half a brain would immediately realise that this was a con. Glad the people that did it got caught though.
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