A MAN from Bushey and his accomplice were jailed for five years on Friday after being found guilty of pocketing more than £7 million in a series of crooked property deals.

Altaf Sayed, 33, of Lake Drive, and Trevor Hamilton-Farrell, 36, of Twyford Avenue, Harrow, used a welter of bogus paperwork to amass cash on five luxury properties in London.

The pair got advances on homes worth between £500,000 and £1.5 million which they then laundered abroad.

Hamilton-Farrell and Sayed were both convicted of six charges of conspiracy to defraud for which they received five-year jail sentences concurrent on each charge.

They were also found guilty of five charges of money laundering and given further concurrent jail terms.

The pair had denied all the charges. The prosecution has now launched a confiscation probe into their realisable assets.

After a seven-week trial, the pair were acquitted of conspiring to defraud seven British expatriate investors out of £1 million in life savings.

However, Judge Henry Blacksell, QC, described them as "incompetent" as far as the investment plot was concerned.

Disgruntled prospectors complained about Hamilton-Farrell and Sayed in July last year.

It was claimed they promised returns of £25,000 on investments of £100,000 in just three months.

But the pair had used bogus solicitors to guarantee their offers of instant riches and many investors lost their life savings.

Later, they used the same non-existent solicitors to back up mortgage applications.

They were able to sell the same property several times.

Their company, Bricmore, was used as a front for the series of frauds which began when the pair applied for a £825,000 mortgage on 15 The Pastures, Totteridge.

They then sold the house after using a bogus firm of solicitors in the con.

In a series of property deals, they then tricked £6.5 million pounds out of mortgage lenders.

They sold 15 The Pastures twice, fleecing £668,823 out of Sheffield-based solicitors' firm, Richard Prentis on one occasion.

Other houses used in the mortgage scam included 61 Sudbury Court Drive, Harrow; 6 Lake Drive, Bushey Heath; Farvue in Woodspring Road, Wimbledon; and 3 Acacia Road, St John's Wood.

The judge said: "You both lied repeatedly and became quite practised deceivers.

"You systematically organised fraud of various financial institutions.

"I have no doubt you became corrupted by money and you thought you could play the high-rolling game you saw others able to achieve.

"False documents and false statements were your stock in trade, and by your own admissions, there was a breathtaking ability to deceive."

October 24, 2001 12:30