A fraudster has been jailed for more than 14 years after attempting to claim ownership of a property in Hitchin.
Leslie Gayle-Childs, 59, claimed that the house in Hitchin belonged to a company he’d set up to commit the fraud. The property’s former owner died in 2006 leaving no will, which Gayle-Charles exploited to claim the former owner had used the house to secure a loan from the bogus company he had set up. In July 2020 Gayle-Childs made an application to court that ownership of the property should pass to the loan company, as the debt secured on it had not been repaid, and that a sitting tenant be evicted.
The court initially upheld the application; however, a retired police officer, DC Quinn, advised the tenant to report it as a fraud offence, and attended the civil case with the tenant. A long running investigation was initiated by Hertfordshire Constabulary’s Serious Fraud and Cyber Unit, who examined the offshore shell companies, set up by Gayle-Childs, and numerous civil cases brought to court by him.
Leslie Gayle-Childs, formerly of Winnington Close, North London, appeared at Cambridge Crown Court on Friday 6 February and was sentenced to 14 years and nine months in prison for two counts of fraud by false representation and three counts of perverting the course of justice.
Hertfordshire Constabulary also applied for a Criminal Behaviour Order against Leslie Gayle-Childs to restrict any further offending upon his release.
Detective Constable Sian Beames, from Hertfordshire Constabulary’s Serious Fraud and Cyber Unit, said: “Leslie Gayle-Charles saw an opportunity to obtain a property with no registered owner and set up an elaborate fraud, involving false identities and offshore shell companies to back up his web of lies. The tenant of the property was faced with eviction and suffered terribly because of these actions. Gayle-Childs knew enough to complicate and confuse the legal process which initially led to the court awarding him ownership of the property.
“Thanks to the intervention of retired police officer DC Quinn, we were able to unravel deceit planned and executed by Gayle-Childs”.
