A FRAUDSTER estate agent who conned people out of more than £40,000 and sold a company after falsely claiming to be the full owner has been jailed.

Richard Charles Hall, of Oaktree Road, Eccleston, who has been described as “deceitful and calculating”, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison at Liverpool Crown Court.

Across two trials, held in October and December 2018, the court heard that Hall, 45, traded as an estate agent through the company Brooklands Sales and Lettings Limited in Newton-le-Willows.

Hall defrauded several people to the value of more than £40,000 through business dealings.

He also dishonestly sold the company in May 2014, claiming that he owned the full company, despite having received investment from a third party.

Furthermore, Hall sold the business just two months before he was made bankrupt for a second time.

The court heard he had first been made bankrupt in 2012, with the restrictions lifted in 2013.

But when he was made bankrupt for a second time in July 2014, he attempted to undermine the Official Receiver’s investigations into his affairs.

Hall tried to conceal a bank account from the Official Receiver and his shares in Brooklands.

Once investigators found the account, they discovered he was operating a sole trader company called Brooklands Sales alongside the company he had sold, unbeknown to the new owners of Brooklands.

He then continued to thwart the Official Receiver’s investigations into his bankruptcy and told investigators that he never held shares in Brooklands, even though his name was on the public Companies House register.

Hall produced banking material intending to convince the court that he had paid back monies for the sale of Brooklands.

Judge Watson QC said that there should be a high degree of trust and integrity in estate agents but that in this case, Hall had “lied and exploited others, while abusing his position of trust and responsibility”.

The judge added that Hall deliberately withheld important information form the Insolvency Service by concealing property then deliberately tried to pervert the course of justice

In the first trial Hall was found guilty of three fraud offences and in the second of a further fraud offence, two counts of obstructing the Official Receiver by perjury and doing an act with intent to pervert the course of justice.

John Fitzsimmons, Chief Investigator of Criminal Investigations for the Insolvency Service, said: “Richard Hall’s behaviour has been deceitful and calculating throughout, whether that was defrauding landlords or undermining the Official Receiver from doing their job

“This has been an extensive investigation covering many areas of criminality and we welcome the sentence handed down by the courts, which we hope serves as a warning to those who think they can renege on their responsibilities toward the Insolvency Service when bankrupt.”