By James Simons
A fraudster has been jailed after changing her name by deed poll to sell a £75,000 house without the knowledge of the true owner.
Sarah Broadbelt took out a passport under her new identity of Marion Patterson – the name of the true legal owner- and set out to fool the
authorities handling the sale of the property.The scam was unearthed only after the real Marion tried to sell the property – and was told it had been sold four months earlier.A few days later she obtained a second passport to distance herself from the name change. The false document was then used by her to open two accounts with Halifax and one with Barclays.
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Broadbelt, 32, of Fledborough Close, Sutton Coldfieldw was jailed for 20 months, having previously admitted charges of fraud and possessing a false identity document.
Jane Sarginson, prosecuting, told Birmingham Crown Court it was a “brazen and calculated” fraud that “struck at the heart of the conveyancing system”.
Sentencing her,Judge Michael Chambers QC told her: “You played a prominent role in a sophisticated fraud to deprive the owner of the house of its ownership.”
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The court heard the real Marion had the house in Welsh House Farm Road, Quinton, valued at up to £200,000, having rented out the home she had owned since 1993 after moving to Cornwall to get married.
Ms Sarginson said: “On February 22, 2016 an estate agent rang up and told her her house had been stolen.”
She said it had been sold to a buyer in October 2015 for £75,000.
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