Anne Gardiner, former proprietor of Belvoir St Albans, which closed down in November 2009 leaving money owed to tenants and landlords, has been sentenced at St Albans Crown Court.
Gardiner received a two-year suspended sentence, was ordered to do 130 hours of community service, and an order was made that confiscation be undertaken and a figure to be agreed to be repaid to the court for the proceeds of crime.
The firm was part of NALS at the time of closure.
Yesterday, NALS said that its NALS Client Money Protection Scheme has reimbursed a total of £192,000 to tenants and landlords whose funds were misappropriated.
Gardiner, who was previously in sales, marketing and training for BSI quality insurance, set up her Belvoir business in June 2007, apparently via her business Simply the Best Limited.
Belvoir said in a statement: “The sentencing sends out a clear and strong message that any fraudulent activity by dishonest lettings agents will be dealt with severely.
“Anne Gardiner’s actions in 2009 let down a lot of people and Belvoir will not tolerate any behaviour which breaks the levels of trust which the company and its 140-plus franchisees nationwide have spent many years building with landlord and tenant clients.
“Anne Gardiner’s own business, ‘Simply The Best Limited’, operated a franchise agreement with Belvoir until late 2009 when a routine audit by the company discovered financial irregularities concerning the management of client funds.
“Belvoir acted swiftly and decisively by reporting the matter to the police, at the same time terminating our franchise agreement with Anne Gardiner.
“Some of the client business operated by Belvoir St Albans was then taken over by our experienced and professional team at Belvoir Central Office, who have since continued to provide a service to the landlord clients affected by the St Albans closure. We have even received letters of praise for the way in which we have dealt with matters.
“Fortunately, because Belvoir insists that all of its franchisees are licensed with the government-backed National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) and covered by the NALS Client Money Protection (CMP) Scheme, all clients affected by the St Albans closure were fully protected and suffered no financial loss.
“We hope that the actions we have taken, and the systems we employ, have helped to minimise any damage to valued clients.
“We are extremely proud of the Belvoir brand and will continue to ensure that all of our franchisees operate to the very highest of standards and with total integrity.”
Anne Gardiner’s Simply the Best Limited company is still active, according to Companies House and is regulated by the FSA. A compulsory strike-off was suspended in March 2011.
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Comments
@dennis
To whom - yourself or your tenant?
Do you know where the deposit is registered?
I am having problems with my lettings agent who refuses to return the tenant deposit.
What can I do?
http://cityquayslondon.blogspot.sg/
Belatedly picking up on my old sparring partner Industry Observers original comment . . .
Its true that, for a time in the recent past, some Martin & Co offices were allowed to run without CMP for legitimate buisness reasons which are too lengthy to discuss on this forum.
BUT:
Industry Observer will be reassured to know that whilst Martin & Co franchisees are free to choose which scheme to join, CMP is once again mandatory across the network, and the rule is being actively enforced by Martin & Co Head Office.
IO may be further reassured to know that Martin & Co Head Office canvassed their franchisees on the topic and twas the franchisees themselves who voted overwhelmingly in favour of CMP being mandatory across the network.
Glad that some comments think that landlords are slowly getting the message about CMP. Hope they are correct about making it mandatory. Both the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Government are very close to that. Hope it happens and dinosaurs in DCLG realise all the scheme providers can only do so much.
The court outcomes are the concern, nick the petty cash and you get community service, in some cases nick hundreds of people money, cause untold misery and get ticked and told to be a good person in the future! Just a joke.
Can we not find a new penal colony?
@John James
The point is had several thousand pounds not been stolen in rent and deposit then there would have been plenty of money for contingencies and the house would have been retained.
@Matt
Its a shame that lots of the comments are hypocritical and that's why it's always safer to trust the facts, rather than the fiction. Do journo's report the facts these days? I'm sure we all have our own views. Bottom line, agents with CMP are the better agents and the public is slowly, slowly realising this. Agents without CMP should be getting nervous it can't be too long before it becomes statutory as all the industry bods keep calling for. I don't want to veer off into the deep political corridors as it's been covered on here a million times. I guess you're one of these agents with CMP but so many don't. The void between self-regulating agents and non self-regulating agents grows by the day as awareness increases. This can only be helpful to put pressure on the powers that be.
I'm gonna dodge the mud-slinging as it doesn't cast a good light on agents or landlords in some cases. Franchise, national, local stand-alone, doesn't really matter if you've decided to self-regulate. The hardest part is getting this message across 'average John', or Jessica to be politically correct. End.
@ where were you when I needed you
What an awful position to be in. Having to sell your house you pay back the deposit. Would you have had to sell your house if the boiler was to be replaced? If so cash flow must be really tight. In this current climate I always keep money in reserve to pay for repairs or any unexpected expense. Wow I hope that there aren't many other landlords like you.
@Mr Sensible
Another Belvoir franchisee trying to big up his brand!
"It makes me smile when.........donkeys ago blah blah"
You try losing £000's of pounds because a brand you were supposed to be able to trust let in a criminal and didn't bother checking him. Donkeys years ago? what 3 years - how old are you - 12? When someone steals from you, only 3 years ago, the pain doesn't go away particularly if you then have to end up selling the house to pay back the tenant their deposit! And at a loss!!
It always makes me smile when people rant about things that happened donkeys years ago which aren't really relevent in 2012 as lots of good agencies have really rallied behind CMP and self-regulation, with or without its pitfalls. No insurance policy is perfect and you've got to be fairly stupid to fail to understand that. Why not spend energy concentrating on the literally 1000s of agents who operate under the radar. There's been tons of stories already this year, yet it's only a few people who seem to be doing anything about it.
It's fair to say that at least 60% of people who comment about CMP haven't actually got any. Sad, so very very sad. This is the old chestnut that really needs to be cracked at some point.
Mr Sensible...I agree we should praise all agents that have CMP in place.
However my concern is this artical and comments are very hypocritical. Belvoir are seen to have sorted out the mess in this case but did very little to support the victims of the Norwich Franchise, which interestingly happened around the same time!
@Industry Observer
YES WELL DONE BELVOIR.
When the BELVOIR franchisee in Norwich (also in 2009/10) ran off with £140k of clients money all of his landlords and tenants were left completely in the lurch. Belvoir head office came in the dead of night, removed all of the files from the office and then put up a brick wall to all who contacted them, saying, nothing to do with us, you'll have to sort it out yourself. In the end the absconding franchisee was caught, jailed and made criminally bankrupt but his creditors, many of whom were owed several thousand pounds each, saw nothing.
So why was it so different between St Albans and Norwich. Easy - St Albans got caught in a chance audit but still had CMP (so NALS had no choice but to cough up). Norwich was never audited and cancelled his NALS & CMP so Belvoir HO were able to put their head in the sand .
@ Industry Observer don't pontificate about how wonderful Belvoir HO are - the Norwich man had been systematically rifling the client account for nearly FIVE YEARS (read the Court transcript). So where were the strict controls and audits - they didn't exist. END OF STORY.
In reality, this is a very old matter that happened many years ago, back in 2009 according to the text. It all looks to have been resolved in the way the industry "wants" matters like this to be solved, by CMP and industry standards. If I had been a client of this agent that closed three years ago, I'd be pretty reassured that my money had been reimbursed. I don't really think anyone could ask for more. Shame the 60% - 70% of unregulated agencies aren't being targetted, yet the good guys always seem to get a hard time.
Agencies with CMP should be praised, not criticised, else what's the point in them spending £1000s each year to self-regulate.
I like to echo the previous comments and well done to all involved for flying the flag of consumer protection, and more importantly for carrying it through!! Rather than just talking about it.
Sorry Industry Observer and John james - But what about Belvoir in Norwich, when the franchisee stole £140,000 from clients?
Their clients weren't protected as the franchisee had already withdrawn from NALS and no longer had CMP. Therefore their clients were left with more than a considerable financial loss.
Belvoir head office obviously didn't enforce their policies thoroughly as you have suggested!
Obviously a very difficult situation that has been handled in a professional manner. As a landlord it is always a concern as to how secure agents are. It looks as if both Belvoir and NALS have managed this well.
Martin & Co
A franchise whose leader of course does not believe in TDP, SAFEagent or anything else to do with improving the security of client money and has gone on the record saying it is all basically unnecessary.
Are you reading this and squirming - you should be.
“Fortunately, because Belvoir insists that all of its franchisees are licensed with the government-backed National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) and covered by the NALS Client Money Protection (CMP) Scheme, all clients affected by the St Albans closure were fully protected and suffered no financial loss."
Well done Belvoir