A letting agent was sentenced to three and a half years in jail after she took £220,000 from tenants and landlords to fund a lavish lifestyle of expensive cars and foreign holidays, and to set up a tanning salon business, a court has heard.
Heather Crabb, 52, who ran Drake Homes, spent deposits and student rents on herself over a period of more than four years.
Former fellow director Jill Wood, aged 57, took £30,000 from the business to help buy a home in Exeter for her son.
She also admitted false accounting, juggling money between various accounts when the students’ deposits should have been protected. She escaped jail, receiving a 22-month sentence suspended for two years.
Edward Bailey, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said Crabb committed theft, fraud and false accounting between March 2013 and December 2017.
https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/arrogant-lettings-boss-heather-crabb-2650249
Comments (2)
If she’s managed to move her assets and the crown can’t recover the money, that’s £62,850 p/a for the 3.5 years. More than most honest agents earn on the outside.
At least she did get jail time. An agent did the exact same around here (3 times in 15 years) and has remained unpunished,
Why so lenient? They stole other peoples money. It wasn’t accidental, it wasn’t hardship, it wasn’t to help a stricken someone? and even if it was, it would still have been wrong
……they stole money that wasn’t theirs, for 4 Years!
The punishment isn’t strong enough for what is systematic theft. The only saving grace is that every day in that prison cell will feel like a week to Ms Crabb if she hasn’t been in jail before.