An estate agent has been told he may face jail for defrauding clients of £40,000.
Paul Onslow, 45, ran Paul Onslow Estate Agency in Harlow, Essex. He pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court to one offence of fraudulently abusing his position as the proprietor of an estate agency business.
The fraud allegedly took place between 22 April 2008 and 22 April 2013 and involved approximately £40,000 of clients' money which Onslow used for his own purposes.
Local press reports say the agent - who lives in Hertfordshire - has pleaded guilty to the charge, which relates to the financial affairs of 14 clients.
Judge Charles Gratwicke adjourned sentencing for reports until next month and remanded Onslow, who is of previous good character, on bail. He warned him that a jail sentence could not be ruled out saying: All options remain open. It's a large sum of money.
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Comments
Okay. Let's say you are one of the people who have been financially compromised by Onslow such as Mrs Bucket, wouldn't you want your money back rather then him going into the slammer Seize his assets and let him suffer financially too. Jail isn't the answer.
I agree, Mo... they seem to concentrate on the negative and that's what gives the industry such a bad name!
I agree, 'may face jail' is a joke. Especially if his 'previous good character' has been allowed to influence this - with the fraud allegedly taking place over 5 years, this is most certainly not an isolated incident that could be deemed a discrepancy in an otherwise good character.
'May face jail' - I think thats ridiculous. He should certainly face jail! I think his previous good behavior has been completely wiped out by this huge theft! Just a shame that so many people will read this and think badly of all estate agents as a result.
I was thinking the very same thing. It does seem to always be these types of stories, which are usually isolated incidents, rather than all the positive work the majority of estate agents do on a daily basis. There is a duty to report incidents like this, but a bit of balance would be nice, otherwise people will only ever be reading stories that give a negative image of estate agents. It's the same with landlords. We only get to hear about the ones doing something wrong or illegal, we don't hear about all the ones doing good work. It's like the news, we're drip-fed all the depressing and miserable news and very rarely get any positive stuff.
Do you ever print any [b]"Happy Stories"[/b]