The sentencing of an agent to jail after he stole tenants’ deposits worth more than £200,000 has been welcomed by the National Approved Letting Scheme.
Keith Ranson, who had run R House in Plymouth where he helped himself to the money before attempting to start a new life in Lincolnshire as a branch manager for WH Brown, was given two years in prison last Friday.
In a statement, NALS said: “NALS welcomes the sentence given to Keith Ranson and this recognition at last that stealing clients’ money is a crime worthy of a custodial sentence. We commend the police for their tenacious pursual of this complicated case.
“The firm was a NALS agent until May 2010 and we have recompensed consumers through the NALS Client Money Protection Scheme where loss has been evidenced.
“NALS was also involved in the preparation of the case against Ranson and we sincerely hope this sentence serves as a warning that stealing clients’ money will not be tolerated.”
The TDS also confirmed that it has been involved in compensating defrauded tenants of R House, which went into liquidation. A spokesman said that 227 tenants had been repaid their deposits.
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Comments
@ IO
Landlords have been known to steal the odd deposit too you know ;-)
I think Rob's idea is quite good, shouldn't be too hard to implement if the power that be wanted too and it would remove us, the agent, from the picture completely.
@ Rob Snow
Why not just arrange for the tenant to pay the deposit direct to the LL in all cases not just TFO ones?
In other words agent never handles the deposit?
Any reason why tenants cant register the deposits directly with a scheme ie DPS who then send us an email confirmation it has been done with our ID etc and that would in one move wipe out any chance ever again of some idiot stealing a clients money or an agent making an innocent mistake in maybe registering a deposit a day late due to error or oversight and then suffering a fine and all the associatied hassle??.. or is that just too simple??
Ranson will be out before Christmas, and in a Open Prison fairly soon.
Not much of a deterrent.
I think ARLA would have done their bit as they do have substantial insurance in place on behalf of Members. NALS does not appear have a disciplinary procedure that anywhere near matches that of ARLA.
I find myself agreeing with Ray and EW.
If this was ARLA, it would be swept under the carpet in a "ARLA agents are perfect - use one when choosing an agent" kind of way.
Well done to NALS for standing up and being counted.
Well said Ray
Puzzled - you would be less puzzled if you actually read things properly.
NALS has done the industry a great service by assisting in this prosecution whilst protecting consumers. This is a rare bit of welcome news.
@ puzzled
“The firm was a NALS agent until May 2010 and we have recompensed consumers through the NALS Client Money Protection Scheme where loss has been evidenced"
Did you miss this bit?
Yes but what about the landlords that lost their rent payments??
What about the poor landlords that are misled into thinking that NALS is a good thing for them and that they have money protection!