A PHOTOCOPIER salesman has been jailed for more than four years after defrauding an elderly couple.
The couple went bankrupt after being the victims of a million pound scam by Gary Carr, of Stotfold.
Clifford and Elaine Bartlett’s company, King’s Music, was destroyed by Carr who made £400,000 in a little over a year.
At Luton Crown Court Carr, 49, of Regent Street pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud between March 2007 and May 2008.
He was jailed for four years and eight months.
During the fraud the couple’s two severely mentally handicapped adult children were persuaded to waive their right of residence to the family home – as it was used as security for a consolidation loan as the family finances deteriorated.
Mr Barlett, aged 70, and his 63-year-old wife went bankrupt with creditors being owed £679,535.
Another victim of the fraud, estate agent Peter Lane ended up in an Independent Voluntary Agreement with his creditors in which he has to repay £300,000 over five years.
The 63-year-old used all his life savings in civil cases to avoid bankruptcy.
Co-defendant Mark Carmichael, 48,of Tudor Way, Waltham Abbey who laundered some of the money pleaded guilty to converting criminal property between January 2008 and May 2008.
He received £70,000 from Carr and was jailed for 15 months.
Michael Speak, for the Crown Prosecution Service said the case had involved a very complicated police investigation.
Peter Lane and Elaine Bartlett had known Gary Carr for nearly 20 years and ‘had trusted him to a very high degree.’
He had supplied them with photocopiers but in recent years they had been ‘enormously tricked and deceived by him.’
Mr Speak said photocopiers made by companies from suppliers such as Canon and Toshiba can cost as much as £50,000.
Typically, it is not purchased directly from the manufacturer but through salesman such as Carr.
A salesman would arrange the financing of the machine under a lease hire agreement over a three year or greater period and receive a commission.