Estate agency conman Keith Fryer is finally behind bars.
After continued warnings by EAT about Fryer – who we believe sometimes approached agents using a different name – the fraudster is in custody and awaiting sentence.
Fryer, 68, was convicted at Bolton Crown Court after a week-long trial. The jury unanimously found him guilty of three charges of fraud and two counts of obtaining money by deception.
The case did not involve estate agents, for once, but his own neighbours.
He had acted as treasurer for the Parklands Stoneclough Management Company, which was responsible for maintaining the communal areas of the housing development where he lived.
But over four-and-a-half years, he forged invoices purporting to be from the development’s gardener and got the directors of the company to write blank cheques, which he paid to himself, his wife and two businesses he ran.
He kept quiet about the fact that he was a convicted fraudster, having moved the Parklands in 2001 after being deported from the USA where he served a five-year jail term for running a $18 million investment fraud.
Fellow residents at the Parklands trusted him, but in fact he was stealing £38,850 from the management company.
He will be sentenced on July 25.
Whilst Fryer was defrauding his neighbours on his own doorstep, it appears he was still running his well-established estate agency scam in various parts of the country.
EAT repeatedly told agents to be on their alert, as there was no knowing where he would turn up next.
Fryer purported to trade as Capital Funding and possibly Equity Relocations and National Locations.
He operated by putting in an offer for a property, saying he could produce a buyer for it. He would then ask for a ‘processing’ fee of £392 from the property’s seller, saying this would be refundable on completion of the purchase.
However, there never were any buyers.
Fryer ran two previous businesses, Unity Investments and Equity Options, which were wound up by the DTI in 2004.
Undaunted, he carried on and was taken to the High Court by the OFT and made to promise that he would not mislead sellers or say that his business was a company.
Police looking into Fryer’s background during the management company scam were aware of EAT’s warnings.
In court, the judge described him as a conman through and through.
The case is not sub judice as the trial has finished, and comments on this story – particularly if you came across Fryer – can be posted.
Click here to see previous EAT article about kieth Fryer: 'Watch out, there's a conman about'
Comments
I am absolutely astonished this has been allowed to happen. I speak from first hand experience because I used to live at The Parklands and I took over conduct of the management company until I moved in late 2004. When I became aware of Mr Fryer's convictions in the US I called a residents' meeting at the local Conservative Club to discuss the matter and to seek Mr Fryer's removal from the management company. When asked to explain himself Mr Fryer stormed out of the meeting and the meeting proceeded to appoint me as the new company secretary and another resident called Wayne to act as sole director. Bank mandates were changed as well and the management company's accountants were informed accordingly. At that time everybody was well aware of what had happened and why it had happened. It is therefore staggering to learn that following my departure Mr Fryer has been allowed access to the finances of the management company. At no point was I consulted by the police. The entire episode is amazing and I am relieved I no longer have any association with the management company. That said I did enjoy living there and the residents were very friendly. I wish them all well in resolving this issue
Mummybarrow - please could you contact me. See contact details below. Many thanks. Rosalind
Finally about bloody time aswell, i was sick of telling people about him and some agents still have sales going through with him and didnt listen to me, ah well there loss, hahaha, lock him up and throw away the key....
..finally!!!! 10 + 4 IS 14.
Anybody who might be interested in HOW he did this and got away with it can read my blog on it.
As I say in the final paragraphs, its all about karma. One day.. just one day... How little did I know that whilst I was writing that the trial was beginning.
http://mummybarrow.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/an-open-letter-to-national-locations-about-your-scam/
There is also a link in there to an earlier Estate Agent Today article.
Dear T T, A C and M B, it seems you all missed the fact that he got jailed for defrauding a management company of funds and NOT for his underhand practice as a supposedly estate agent.
Have you all got this message now?
If you have this means you will no longer need to post your mindless nonsense here and yes I am an EA.
Lets just say thank you to his neighbours for getting him jailed so he will no longer pester us for about 2 to 3 years and then he will be out to carry on where he left off. Will you be ready though? I doubt it.
"The truth": find yourself an new pseudonym. One that begins with a 'w' would be most appropriate, I suggest...
Mark Atkin: any other post which contains 'that' word I would report in a heartbeat. Yours, however, should not be deleted. It deserves being displayed in bold, italics, caps, and double underlined!!
I always love it when someone posts with a name like "The truth" and obviously can't read because their comment doesn't relate to the article, and THEN uses a phrase like "it's common knowledge", which is basically the same as "I'm making this up".
Classic stupidity - it's a shame you can't screen people on the basis of a basic comprehension test.
We were approached by Mr Fryer via his supposed company 'National Locations' using the name Derek Fisher in May 2011 looking to offer on vacant property on behalf of a third party, after receiving correspondence from this supposed company something didnt look right and thankfully I did a check on the internet for his company background. If you copy paste the following into google you will see he has been busy up and down the country for some years.
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2008/07/dodgy-housebuying-outfit-capit.html
Anonynous Coward: Because he writes to home owners direct and tells them that this is an administration fee and the survey will not be completed until it is paid. If it is not paid the deal is off. My granny got scammed this way and I was in process of speaking ot the police. Seems we no longer need to.
I am fascinated as to how this guy managed to con people this way. £392 for a promise?
Where I work (as an agent) it is almost impossible to get property owners to agree to a notional fee - i.e.: IF we sell it then you pay us 1.5% but until then everything we do is 100% free.
Average fee in my town has been steadily below 1% for 7 years.
I have to say that althought "The truth" may have missed the point, charging a vendor up front to list there property and then a successful completion fee sounds like a sensible business model to me.
well done 'the truth' for fundamentally missing the whole point of the story. Grade 'A' in fuckwittery
And your 'profession' is?
No doubt hundreds more estate agents will be following in his footsteps, it's common knowledge that the profession contains some of the most underhand and immoral practices known in business.
Throw away the key I say......