Four women lost up to £900 each after they saw an ad for a flat to rent above an empty Chinese takeaway in Southsea. The bogus landlord asked each of them for a deposit and arranged a date for them to move in. Each woman was given a different name by the man purporting to be the landlord. When they eventually moved in with all their belongings, the real landlord showed up and demanded to know what they were doing in his flat.
Fake Landlord Disappears
It soon transpired that the four women had been conned by an opportunistic workman who had been given a key to the premises in order to carry out repairs. He has since done a disappearing act. The women were all given their marching orders, with one of them forced to move in with friends because she had nowhere else to go.
Not a Home for Life
Another of the women didn’t even have friends to turn to, so she refused to move out and is now waiting for the real landlord to evict her.
‘I was homeless and on the streets and my family gave me £900 for the deposit, she told a local newspaper.
‘This was the chance of a home for me. I thought this was going to be the place I would live for the rest of my life. But the real landlord came in and said “What the hell are you doing in my flat?”. I don’t know what I’m going to do now. I have nowhere else to go.”
