A man has been jailed for remortgaging his elderly parents’ £1.5m Hammersmith house to fund his own buy-to-let portfolio, the London Evening Standard reports.
Nicholas Leroy Forrester, 50, took out a £300,000 loan on the six bedroom home to help purchase three properties in East London in 2006.
He tricked his 83 year old father into signing for the loan on his family home of 35 years.
However his father then took him to the High Court to take his name off the family home deeds and gave evidence against him during a criminal trial.
Forrester denied obtaining a money transfer by deception, but was found guilty by a jury at Isleworth Crown Court in August after a five-day trial.
He also pleaded guilty to wrongly claiming £10,000 in benefits - jobseekers allowance, housing benefit and council tax benefit- while living in his housing association flat.
Judge John Denniss told him: “Your behaviour as far as your father’s property was concerned was profoundly dishonest and false representations were used towards your father and almost certainly your mother.
“It was well-planned, taking advantage of vulnerable individuals.
“You became fixated with the opinion that this house was your house and when the equity rose you were determined to strip it out to pursue your own commercial ventures, which did not go well.
“Your family has now effectively rejected you and your father feels let-down by you and defrauded.”
The court heard that a High Court order has put the family home back in his father’s name and Forrester’s property portfolio has now been repossessed.
Sam Bonner, defending, said: “The family relationships are very fractured now and he is extremely low, very stressed and extremely remorseful.
“This has taken a toll on him physically and mentally as well as financially.”
His father still has to cope with £1,100-a-month repayments of the loan taken out by his son.
