Jailed estate agent Tim Glasson could set up business again upon release

JAILED estate agent Tim Glasson could be free to once again set-up business as an estate and letting agent once he is released, the West Briton understands.

Glasson, 51, was jailed for 21 months earlier this month after pleading guilty to ten counts of fraud.

Glasson failed to hand over tenants’ rental money to their landlords and kept deposits for himself instead of paying them into the Deposit Protection Scheme.

Rosalind Renshaw, editor of Property Industry Eye and property market expert, says that the law is particularly loose when it comes to letting agents.

She said: “They are not legally estate agents and are therefore not bound by the provisions of the Estate Agents Act. That means that while estate agents can be banned, or warned, letting agents can’t be.

“This loophole in the law means that an estate agent could be banned (for example, because of fraud), but then become a letting agent tomorrow – all quite legally. There is nothing in law to stop Mr Glasson setting up again.

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