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A sales manager at an estate agency has been branded as "thoroughly dishonest" after he pretended to rent out homes which clients were trying to sell.

Andrew Boyne demanded holding fees and advance rent for the houses after taking the keys from the office where he worked in Exeter.

A family were left homeless after they paid a deposit, gave notice on their own rented accommodation, and then discovered that their new home was not available.

Boyne used the Gumtree website to advertise the properties and used a mobile phone to arrange viewings. He conned up to £850 from each of 13 clients and then stopped taking their calls.

They were left with no means of contacting him, although one managed to get their money back after tracing him to the estate agency.

Boyne had a gambling addiction and invented the scam to pay for his habit and service debts he ran up to illegal money lenders, who were threatening to beat him up.

He worked as a sales manager at Martin and Co in Exeter which gave him access to 400 properties which were on their books.

His boss Chris Perring uncovered his dishonesty after Boyne let himself into the office, which was closed on a Saturday afternoon, and stole £1,075 from a cash box. He was sacked and now works in a call centre in Plymouth.

The frauds netted him £7,840, although he repaid £650 to the only customer who tracked him down.

Boyne, of Grenville Road, Teignmouth, and formerly of Queen Street, Exeter, admitted theft and 13 counts of fraud.

He was jailed for 20 months, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 250 hours unpaid work and pay £5,000 compensation by Judge Erik Salomonsen at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him:"You are a thoroughly dishonest man. This was not one offence carried out on the spur of the moment. You formed the view, as an intelligent man, these were offences which it was possible to commit.

"You used your position working for Mr Perring and your Gumtree account to remove relatively small amounts from people who could ill afford to lose it. The consequence to one man was that he became homeless.

"These were financial crimes, but they were not victimless crimes. You have come within a whisker of going to prison."

Mr Gareth Evans, prosecuting, said Boyne started work at Martin and Co in May last year and devised his scam about three months later.

He advertised properties which were for sale or lease on the company's books on Gumtree and left his own mobile as a contact number to arrange viewings.

He pressurised unsuspecting customers into forking out holding fees and advance rent by telling them there was a lot of interest in the properties, but when they tried to contact him again, he did not answer calls.

One customer actually moved into a flat in Sydney Road, Exeter, and was eventually allowed to stay there but others moved out of their own homes only to find they had no right to live in their new ones.

One customer who had paid £600 in advance found himself homeless with his wife and newborn baby and had to be given emergency housing at the Premier Inn in Exeter by the city council.

Mr Lee Bremridge, defending, said Boyne had got into financial difficulties as a result of losing his previous well paid job as an estate agent as a result of being accused of rape, for which he was found not guilty by a jury.

He became depressed while on bail for two years awaiting his trial and started gambling. This led him to fall into debt and he was being threatened by people who had lent him money.

Mr Bremridge said:"The amounts he took were all relatively small, in the hundreds of pounds. As soon as it went into his account it went out to service his gambling problem or to pay off debts. He was not getting a better way of life, he was making ends meet."

After the sentencing Chris Perring, managing director at Martin and Co, said Boyne had been brought to justice due to cooperation between local estate agents who deplored his actions.

Mr Perring, who is also the vice-chairman of the Exeter Estate Agents Association, thanked detectives who worked on the case.

He added: "We don't want to be tarred with the same brush as this person. If I find this sort of thing happening I go to the ends of the earth to expose it.

"The good news coming out of it is that we are now all aware of this level of crime and we all now talk a lot more about potential people we suspect. If anyone suspects activity we will let each other know. As a group we deplore this sort of activity and want to work together where we can to protect clients interests and also catch these sorts of people.

"I also want to the thank the detective, DC Emily Sheppard, for her determination in bringing the matter to court."