Neath: Family took £300k from friends in property scam

The family have been sentenced to prison terms of up to three years

A mother and her three sons swindled their friends out of more than £300,000 in a property scam, a court has heard.

Audrey Osborne, 66, Clayton Moore, 48, Ian Moore, 46, and Gary Moore, 44, told their friends they were investing in a five-home property development in Neath, but it never materialised.

The family also over estimated their income to obtain mortgages totalling £2.5m between 2005 and 2009.

They have been sentenced to prison terms up to three years in length.

Judge Richard Twomlow said that the four's predictions for the return on the investments were "founded on some sort of fantasy".

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Nine people who invested between £20,000 and £104,000 in the failed "Dreamscape Homes" property development knew and trusted the family, Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard.

They received share certificates, but no return on their money as the land was never developed. Some investors re-mortgaged their homes to provide the money.

'Burden by debt for years'

On Thursday the court heard that some had suffered significant financial hardship as a result.

Judge Twomlow told the four "the investors trusted you implicitly" but "all investors lost all their money" and some had consequently been "burdened by debt for years".

Audrey Osborne and her sons sent emails to investor to try to reassure them

The judge said he accepted the mortgage broking company and property development company had been "initially genuine projects" but that when the firms began "sinking", more money was sought which went into personal accounts to try and keep the businesses afloat.

The family sent emails to the investors to try and reassure them when problems started.

The judge said they "seemed to border on the delusional", adding that the family's motivation was "greed followed by self-preservation".

Ian Moore, of Main Road, Cilfrew, Neath Port Talbot, was sentenced to two years and four months in prison, while the other three, of Forest Hill, Aberdulais, Neath Port Talbot, will each serve a three-year jail term.

A later hearing will consider whether a proceeds of crime order should be imposed to recover fraudulently obtained money.

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