An estate agent who made up what a judge described as a “pack of lies” has been spared a jail sentence after targeting family friends and a children’s cancer charity in “shameful” scams
Cardiff Crown Court on Monday heard that Charlotte Blackwell invented fake wedding plans to steal thousands of pounds from her fiancé’s mother and others after falling into gambling debt.
The 31-year-old, from Coity in Bridgend, had already avoided jail last August after another fraud in which she tried to con the children’s cancer charity Morgan’s Army out of £4,000. She received a suspended 10-month sentence after lying to the charity that her daughter needed costly treatment in Germany when in reality she was in remission from cancer.
This week the estate agent was back in court over an 18-month deception which coincided with her scam against the charity.
Blackwell had been in a relationship with Daniel Thomas for five years before they got engaged in February 2022.
Between November 2022 and May 2024, Blackwell asked for and received money from members of the supposed wedding party under the pretence it was going towards a planned ceremony overseas. The four victims were her then-fiancé’s mother Paula Thomas, who paid £3,296, and three of Thomas’ friends — Helen Morse, who paid £3,311, Sue Chapman, who paid £3,272, and Tracey Roberts, who paid £2,803, coming to a total of £12,682.
“In March 2024 it was Ms Morse who made enquiries with the travel agents, TUI,” said the prosecutor. “When she provided the booking reference the defendant had given her, she was informed the reference related to a different holiday for an elderly couple that took place the year prior. Following this, the defendant sent the victims fake booking confirmations which had been made to look like genuine TUI documents.
“She provided them with fake flight confirmations, fake emails from travel agents and fake bank transactions. She created fake email accounts to make it seem she had been communicating with agents. Ms Morse suspected something was not right with the documents from travel agents as there were spelling mistakes. She took them to the travel agents who confirmed they were fraudulent documents.”
Blackwell, of Ffordd Y Draen in Coity, pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud over the wedding con. She cried in the dock throughout her sentencing.
Judge Jonathan Rees KC slammed the “fiction” and “pack of lies” created by Blackwell in her “shameful” frauds. He said her chances of avoiding prison had benefited from the two sets of offences being dealt with separately.
The judge imposed a 12-month prison term suspended for 18 months, a further 120 hours of unpaid work and five days of rehabilitation activity. He also ordered Blackwell pay £3,500 in compensation to each of Thomas, Ms Chapman and Ms Morse, and £3,250 to Roberts, to “reflect the additional aggravation and distress you caused”, as well as £150 in prosecution costs.
Read the orginal article: https://propertyindustryeye.com/estate-agent-narrowly-avoids-jail-after-shameful-scams/
