A teenager has been caught running a rental property scam which has swindled tenants out of a total of £15,000. He was caught when it turned out he did not own any properties.
Cameron Corsie aged 19, posed as a landlord and also took deposits and advanced rent for flats in Edinburgh. He was sentenced by the judge to two years jail. Throughout the scam Cameron Corsie pretended he was the owner of flats at various addresses across Edinburgh. He then took money from his victims, who were almost all students and who were asked to transfer money to bank accounts that he had set up just for the scam. In addition to this Mr Corsie also sold fake music festival tickets. Last year he was sent to prison for eight months for fraudulent activities, but he started re-offending within a week of his early release.
The property scam went on for eight months and only came to light when he arranged over the telephone to visit a legitimate landlord’s flat which was covered by landlord insurance with the intention to rent the property from her. He used a false name and had false references but was still allowed to rent the property. He then conned another victim into giving him £300 to rent the flat after posing as the landlord. The scam was finally revealed when the tenant arrived at her new flat and found the real landlord was already there.
Sentencing Corsie the judge said: “You are a nasty, dangerous, horrible person. The only way to deal with you is to take you out of circulation. You are not to be trusted. These crimes were perpetrated against vulnerable victims, people who are desperate for accommodation and kids desperate for tickets to a pop concert. You tell everyone the most incredible lies. The only offending you have been involved in is fraud, again and again and again. You must have started planning these various different matters while you were still in custody.”