Teenager jailed after pretending to be landlord

A 19-year-old fraudster ran a rental property scam which swindled tenants out of £15,000.

Cameron Corsie pretended to be a landlord and took deposits and rents for flats in Edinburgh which he did not own.

Corsie was sentenced to two years’ jail at Edinburgh Crown Court last week.

Corsie pretended he had the rights to let out flats at various addresses across Edinburgh. He took deposits and rental payments from victims, who were mainly students. Victims were encouraged to transfer money to bank accounts he had set up for the scam.

In addition to the property scam, Corsie sold fake music festival tickets, and told another victim he was raising money to halt the closure of a school.

Corsie was sent to prison for eight months last year after a string of fraudulent activities, but began re-offending eight days after his early release in June.

The seven-month property scam, which occurred between June last year and January this year, came to light when Corsie arranged over the telephone to visit a landlord’s flat with the apparent intention to rent the property.

He used a false name but the landlord recognised his voice, as he had been a schoolmate of her son.

Corsie assured the landlord that he had no intention of scamming her. She let the apartment out to Corsie.

However, he conned victim Sofia Jiang, 20, into giving him £300 to rent the apartment in January. The scam was finally revealed when Sofia Jiang arrived at her new apartment and found the real landlord inside.

Sentencing Corsie, Sheriff Graeme Warner said: “You are a nasty, dangerous, horrible person. The only way to deal with you is to take you out of circulation. You are not to be trusted.

“These are truly grotesque crimes perpetrated to some extent against vulnerable victims, people who are desperate for schools to stay open, people desperate for accommodation and kids desperate for tickets to a pop concert.

“You tell them all the most incredible lies. The only offending you have been involved in is fraud, again and again and again. You must have started planning these various different matters while you were still in custody.”