A fraudulent family of mother and sons property developers have been jailed for a conning investors out of more than £1.5m. Audrey Osbourn and her sons Gary, Clayton, and Ian Moore funnelled money which people entrusted them with into keep their sinking firm afloat and into paying their own mortgages and general household bills. Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard many of those the defendants scammed were friends and all have suffered huge financial and emotional damage.
The defendants had previously been handed suspended sentences for their fraudulent activities but those sentences were successfully challenged in the Court of Appeal as being unduly lenient. Their guilty pleas were vacated and a retrial took place. The decision of the Court of Appeal could not be made public at the time due to reporting restrictions which have now been lifted.
The four defendants were subsequently convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud and to multiple counts of mortgage fraud following a nine-week trial. The defendants, who benefited to the tune of more than £2.8m from their offending, returned to the dock on Thursday to face sentence.
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The court heard Osbourn and her sons ran companies called Credence Finance Ltd and Dreamscape Homes which were initially legitimate businesses. However the companies ran into financial difficulties and their operation became crooked. The defendants submitted multiple fraudulent mortgage applications by vastly overstating income and also funnelled hundreds of thousands of pounds which trusting investors were putting into a project to develop executive housing on a plot of land in Clifrew, Neath, into keeping Credence afloat when in reality the firm was "sinking". The defendants also diverted investors' money into their own bank accounts and into paying off their own mortgages. The court heard the land was never developed and investors saw no returns. The investors in Dreamscape Homes included family friends, employees, and Credence customers who provided around £20,000 to £104,000 each. Some of the investors re-mortgaged their own homes to fund this.
Judge Richard Twomlow said during the trial assertions had been made that the investors knew where their money was going and that the defendants had believed they would be able to repay the money that people were investing with them. The judge said some of the assertions which had been put forward "border on the delusional".
Audrey Osbourn, aged 66, Gary Moore, aged 44, and Clayton Moore, aged 48, of Fforest Hill, Aberdulais, Neath, and 45-year-old Ian Moore, of Wern-ddu Road, Ammanford, had all previously been convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud and fraud by false representation when they appeared in the dock for sentencing.
Caroline Rees KC, for Gary Moore, said it was clear from the pre-sentence report that the defendant understands the impact his offending has had on his victims, and she said her client was remorseful. Georgina Buckley, for Clayton Moore, said her client suffered with anxiety and depression but despite those hurdles, along with dealing with a divorce and bankruptcy, the defendant had "moved forward positively and tried to keep himself a positive member of the community". She said Moore was "devastated" that the investors had lost their money and wished he could repay them. David Singh, for Ian Moore, invited the court to draw a distinction between the position of his client and that of the other defendants.
Osbourn and Gary and Clayton Moore were each sentenced to three years in prison. Ian Moore, who the court heard had a "background" role in the office and had little or no contact with investors, was sentenced to two years and four months in prison. The defendants will serve up to half those periods in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
Speaking after the sentencing Gurminder Sanghera of the Crown Prosecution Service's serious economic organised crime and international directorate said: "Between them Audrey Osbourn and her sons committed multiple offences of fraud and money laundering through dishonesty, misleading mortgage providers, and betraying the trust placed in them by friends, employees, and customers. They did so for their own personal benefit.
"The victims suffered financial hardship as a consequence of the defendants’ greed. Others described the emotional heartbreak and distress caused to them and their families. We will now pursue confiscation proceedings against them to ensure they have not benefited from their criminal conduct and, if possible, to compensate the victims."
The defendants were charged by South Wales Police via postal requisition and no custody photographs are available
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