Harpreet Garcha’s admission of guilt has been welcomed by national property lettings specialist Belvoir, with whom he held franchise agreements for offices in Kettering, Desborough and Corby, prior to his departure from the Belvoir Group in 2014.

Commenting after yesterday’s sentencing, a Belvoir spokesman said: “This was a disturbing and regrettable series of criminal offences committed between 2008 and 2012.

“The judge’s sentencing statement brings to a conclusion a four-year investigation and legal proceedings brought by Northamptonshire Trading Standards Service throughout which Belvoir provided full co-operation and access, relying on robust auditing and compliance procedures to provide any information requested by the investigation team.

“We hope we can now draw a line under this very disappointing episode.

“Mr Garcha failed to provide his clients with the professional levels of service expected from all our franchise owners and we do not hesitate to condemn his actions.

“With over 1,000 people working in Belvoir’s multi award winning national network of over 200 offices, we rely on the very highest levels of trust, professionalism and integrity amongst our colleagues and business partners.

“It is extremely unfortunate that Mr Garcha did not uphold these values.

“We believe that any fraudulent activity by dishonest lettings agents is a betrayal of such trust and anyone found guilty of criminal behaviour should be dealt with severely.”