Lettings Manager Pleads Guilty To Defrauding Estate Agency

A lettings manager has admitted defrauding Humphreys Estate Agents in Chester over a period of more than four years.

Wendy Dare, 57, of Southport Road, Scarisbrick, Southport, pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud by abuse of position when she appeared at Chester Magistrates Court this week.

However, a court hearing will take place after the prosecution and defence disputed the total sum Dare was said to have defrauded the company.

Prosecuting, Michael O’Kane, said the offences took place between 2 February 2016 and 31 December 2020, when Dare was a lettings manager at the firm.

The court was told that she “acted in a position of trust and responsibility” but abused her position to make financial gains for herself and members of her family.

One of the charges was that Dare recorded 65 false landlord payments, totalling £28,506, to cover rental payments for her daughters.

The total sum of the fraud, the prosecution say, was in the region of £140,000.

But Peter Barnett, defending Dare, said there was a “substantive dispute over the sums involved”, after she repaid £36,000 prior to her arrest, claiming that she had believed that was the total sum to repay.

Dare is expected to be sentenced at Chester Crown Court later this year.