A man described in court as a former estate agent has escaped jail after conning 14 victims out of deposits.

The conman, Sumeet Vij, 28, known as Sunny, took £20,875 after advertising his parents’£400,000 semi in Ilford, Essex, as available for rent on Gumtree.

He then arranged viewings when his parents were out, signing up prospective tenants and taking hundreds of pounds off them in deposit money.

Vij would then delay the supposed moving-date by saying that renovation work needed doing or that the previous tenants had not moved out.

His parents had no idea their home had been advertised.

Philip Misner, prosecuting, said: “With his background as an estate agent he knows the type of people who can’t afford to do anything but rent, so we know exactly the sort of effect this behaviour has on people’s lives.”

One victim of the scam, Hassan Khan, paid £2,600 to Vij and cost his daughter the place she had won at a local grammar school because he had to move out of the area into social housing.

Another, Hannah Owusu, enrolled her three children in local schools after paying the deposit.

When the fraud was uncovered, her children lost half a term’s schooling while she looked for new accommodation.

Vij, who was said to have a serious gambling problem, had been jailed in January for six months for the same offence and had only just served the licence period when he began re-offending.

He was charged with another seven offences in August, and went on to defraud more people while on bail.

Vij, who now works for a double-glazing firm, admitted 13 counts of fraud and asked for another offence to be taken into consideration at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

Sentencing him to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years, Judge Joanna Korner said: “The frauds you committed were some of the most disgraceful that I’ve ever had to listen to.

“You took advantage of people who were desperate to find somewhere to live and of people who wanted to get their children into particular schools – you callously and calculatedly took advantage of their desperation.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that had it not been for what’s very persuasively been put forward on your behalf, namely that unless you are cured of this gambling addiction you will continue to behave in this manner, you no doubt would be facing and extremely long prison sentence.”

She also ordered Vij to pay £1,000 each to his first 13 victims and repay £500 to his final victim within nine months.

He was also ordered to pay £120 victim surcharge and complete 240 hours of unpaid work.