A conwoman who operated an online property fraud, advertising rental homes she did not own, has returned to the UK after two years on the run.

Leah Farley, 31, handed herself in to police at Birmingham Airport when she flew back from Turkey last week.

She had been sentenced to 44 months in jail in her absence in 2017, having skipped the country days earlier. She had pleaded guilty beforehand.

Two accomplices, Martie Verdie and Emran Meah, had helped her set up fake profiles on property rental websites.

All three had been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud. Verdie was jailed for four years while Meah was fined £3,000 and ordered to do 240 hours of unpaid work.

Farley had claimed to be selling iPhones and other mobiles, duping some 34 buyers. She also purported to be a landlord, after stealing a passport from a Birmingham apartment.

She conned four people into handing over deposits to secure flats advertised on OpenRent. All parted with money without seeing the supposed properties.

None of the rentals existed, and the tenants only realised they had been scammed when they tried to move in.

Detective Constable Richard Potts, of West Midlands Police Economic Crime Unit, said: “This was a fairly basic scam in that she was taking money for products she simply didn’t own, but she created a wealth of bogus online profiles to give the impression she was a genuine online seller.”

He said she had continued to claim State benefits while conning her victims.

He added: “Fraudsters are good at what they do; one of Farley’s tricks was to tell customers there was another tenant waiting to move in and the only way to secure the agreement was to make full payment immediately into a specified bank account.”

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/conwoman-who-fled-uk-before-21597679