A fake Liverpool mortgage broker who conned a house-hunter out of nearly £23,000 is facing jail.
Toxteth businessman Edward Madden, 54, conned would-be home buyer Marjorie Burt into paying a deposit directly into his bank account.
He told Ms Burt he could help her pick up a flat in Dagenham, Essex, on the cheap, but she had to pay the cash directly into his account to prove she had the necessary deposit, according to a report in the Liverpool Echo.
Madden told her a bank statement was not sufficient proof to secure the property and said the only way the lender would give her a loan was if she transferred the full deposit to his company.
He was found guilty of two counts of theft at Snaresbrook Crown Court and was warned to expect a custodial term when he appears for sentencing on September 12.
Ms Burt told the court during the trial: "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."
Madden pocketed £22,321 for the deposit on the house and then asked for a further sum to have the house surveyed.
She said she paid £364 for the survey which never happened.
Ms Burt said: "I was phoning him constantly, he just said that he'd got the money in his bank for the mortgage, I just assumed the money would go to the building society.
"I just let it continue, I was chasing and chasing, and he said oh, it will be tomorrow, it will be next week'.
"We were in touch every day on the phone and by text until March, but then a friend told me that the house had already been sold."
Madden was eventually arrested in July 2013 when he stepped off a plane from Marbella at Southend Airport.
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