Calculating crook drained community-centre funds and preyed on homeseekers with 'cynical' deceptions
Fraudster pretended to be a property magnate who was legally qualified and had cancer
A calculating crook fleeced a community centre where he worked, pushing it to the brink of closure before conning thousands from friends by pretending to have a portfolio of properties.
Trevor Chambers was jailed at Leeds Crown Court today after admitting five counts of fraud and one of theft.
He was told by the judge that he gained people’s trust in a “cynical and deeply unpleasant way”, even claiming he had cancer at one point and that he was a solicitor, in order to squeeze more money from them.
He was jailed for four-and-a-half years.
The court heard that the 35-year-old had first landed a job in 2020 as a cleaner at the Phoenix Centre on Batley Road, Alverthorpe.
In 2022, he was appointed treasurer, giving him access to the registered charity’s finances.
But other workers became suspicious that the funds were being mismanaged, prosecutor Thomas Cowan said, with utility bills not being paid.
Debt collectors even came to the centre, and noticed that Chambers was acting strangely. He left the building and never returned.
A bag was later found under the centre full of reminders and county-court judgements over the unpaid bills.
It was discovered that between January and November 2023, he had drained more than £25,000 from one account, and had taken almost £9,000 from another.
Money dropped into a deposit box by people hiring the centre had also been stolen, which is thought to have come to more than £29,000.
The total thought to have taken from the centre by Chambers came to £63,777.
However, devious Chambers continued to defraud others.
He had offered a struggling mum-of-four, whom he had known since school, the chance to move into a property in September 2023 that he claimed he owned.
He told her he owned seven properties. But he continued to ask for money up front for the house on Sunny Hill Close in Wrenthorpe.
Incredibly, Chambers then convinced the family to pay a £5,000 “fine” after they went to the property to look at it before they received the keys.
He also persuaded the woman to sell her jewellery to pay him more, and that he was legally qualified when it came to conveyancing.
In total, he conned £29,000 from them over a 20-month period after it came to light that the real house owner had never heard of Chambers.
In a victim impact statement, the woman said: “I do not think I would trust anyone again. I have sleepless nights because of you. I thought you were my friend.
“You have left me in so much debt. I have four young kids to raise. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
He carried similar property scams to story to two other people whom he knew, telling one he had cancer. They lost £800 and around £500 respectively.
Chambers, of no fixed address, has only one previous conviction from when he was a youth. He appeared in court today from HMP Leeds where he was being held on remand.
Mitigating, Fuad Arshad said Chambers accepted it was “sophisticated and targeted” and stemmed from “utter greed”, but added: “He accepts full responsibility, no excuses, he knew what he was doing.
“There can never be any proper explanation.”
He said there was a sense of shame and guilt, that he was a vulnerable man with significant ill health.
Judge Andrew Stubbs KC said of Chambers’ underhand behaviour: “You were lying to take that money to spend on yourself.
“But the ultimate consequence being that for the first time you are going to prison for a significant time.”
He told him it was a “cynical and deeply unpleasant way” to act and told him that landing the job at the community centre had been “like giving the child the keys to the sweet shop”.