The trial has started this week of six people who are all accused of conning tenants and landlords out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The defendants in the fraud case are Martin Marcus, Nadim Khan,  Michael Page, Corinne Marcus, James Day and Stacey Heffernan, of what was Churchill Residential in north London.

The trial is at Harrow Crown Court and is expected to last up to six weeks.

The defendants all face five counts of fraud, with Corinne Marcus facing an additional charge of money laundering.

Prosecuting, Gordon Menzies said that tenants would hand over money which disappeared into the business.

He said: “The company assured clients it would put their money in a ‘ring-fenced client account’ but if you look at this ‘client account’, it was used for coffee shops, underground stations, easyJet tickets, transactions made in Spain and Virgin Active memberships.

“Often the tenants would not even get a property. Many got nothing. Some got a cheque from Mrs Marcus’s bank account which then bounced.

“It was not clever but it was fraud and it worked.”

The defendants are accused of renting out properties without the owner’s permission, pocketing the rent, and also encouraging multiple tenants to pay deposits for the same properties – money which they failed to put into a deposit protection scheme.

The court heard that the company’s name has undergone several name changes, including Corporate Relocations, A&A Properties, Churchill Residential, JMJ Residential, and Anthony Grant.

Mr Menzies said that the Marcus couple were central to the case, and had been accused of trying to let the home where they were tenants, and from which they were eventually evicted.

All the defendants have pleaded not guilty.

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