The Liverpool Echo reports that Toxteth businessman Edward Madden told potential purchaser Marjorie Burt he could help her buy a flat in Essex at a knock down rate providing she could pay cash directly into his bank account to prove she had a deposit.
Whilst impersonating a mortgage broker he told Burt that her bank statement was not enough to prove her ability to provide a deposit and that he would need the full deposit of £23,000 paid directly to his company.
Burt told the court: “I said I shouldn’t give you the money it should go to the solicitor, but he said if he didn’t receive that money that day the house would fall through.
“He said that if he had the money then the lender would know for sure that I had the money.”
The conman also requested additional funds to survey the house and kept stalling his victim for a number of months.
Madden was eventually caught in July 2013 and looks set for a jail term once he is sentenced on 12 September.
