A man who unexpectedly closed his New Malden letting agent leaving landlords £27,000 out of pocket has been jailed for ten months.
Chandra Patel, 34, was the director of Giraffe Residential, in Coombe Road, which he closed in December 2014 having taken about £27,000 from 17 landlords - who had used the letting agency to secure tenants deposits - to cover his own debts.
Patel was sentenced to ten months in prison and banned from being a director of a company for seven years at Kingston Crown Court on Friday.
He was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge to be calculated at a later date.
Sentencing, Judge Timothy Lamb said: “He traded well until 2014, when things took a turn for the worst. The defendant decided to help himself to the monies which he held in trust.
“I take into account the defendant’s family circumstances, I take into account that he is of previous good character.
“However, the defendant became part of a system of retail letting which was created in order to instil trust and confidence. He was plainly not fit to play a part in the system. He abused his position.”
Patel took his customers’ funds, which comprised of a mixture of rent payments and deposits, between February and October 2014 as the company went into debt.
Landlords were left to reimburse their tenants from their own pockets after the money disappeared, having only been told in a letter in December that Giraffe would be dissolved and that “no payments can be made”.
Police and trading standards launched an investigation after receiving numerous complaints that month.
Patel pleaded guilty to two counts of fraudulent trading on Wednesday, March 23, at Kingston Crown Court.
Defending, Charlene Sumnall argued that a custodial sentence would put Patel’s wife and three children “at risk”, with his youngest child five months old.
She said: “Mr Patel acknowledges that by his actions he had caused distress and worry to those that he defrauded.
“When it [Giraffe] fell into financial difficulty, which is reflected in his pleas, he took money which he knows he shouldn’t have.
“That being said, in the grand total of fraudulent trading cases, in my submission this is towards the low end.”
She said her client would appeal the sentence.
Three landlords who used Giraffe watched the sentencing from the public gallery.
A 47-year-old landlord from New Malden, who did not want to be named, said: “I think it was the right thing to do - he had to accept the consequences of his actions. I had a lot of trust in them and a lot of money.
“It was absolutely shocking that he had taken so much. I haven’t covered the costs, I think it will take me about five years. He made no attempt to pay anything, he had so many opportunities.”
- Got a story? Call the newsdesk on 020 8722 6315 or send an email to jonathan.mitchell@london.newsquest.co.uk
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