Cash order for couple who funded lifestyle through fraud (From Your Local Guardian)

Cash order for couple who funded lifestyle through fraud

7:40am Wednesday 11th April 2012 in Top Stories By Matt Watts

A married couple who funded a luxury lifestyle through fraud have been ordered to pay back more than £100,000.

Roy Sciberras, 52, of Woodmansterne Lane, Wallington, and his wife Teresa Newman, 54, of Canvey Island, Essex, used funds obtained through fraudulent mortgages, re-mortgages and loans, to fund a lavish lifestyle that included buying a holiday property in Turkey, a £500,000 home in the UK, cosmetic surgery and a £4,800 wedding reception.

Following investigation by Sutton Police's fraudbusters they have now been ordered to pay back a total of £112,321 in fraudulent earnings.

It was found their dodgy dealings also helped a new car, extensive foreign travel, , heavy credit card use.

For a number of years, Sciberras, jailed in 2009 after admitting various frauds, ran a successful cleaning business called RS Services, which provide and supported his family with a lifestyle that included private education/medical funding.

With the divorce court aware of all these facts, a generous divorce settlement was issued.

However, within weeks of the final divorce settlement, Sciberras declared himself bankrupt and RS Services was dissolved.

During this same period, Newman, given a two year suspended sentence in 2011, declared herself as the new proprietor of a cleaning business ‘SOS Cleaning’.

Through this business Newman declared false information in order to support high value mortgages, which enabled her to purchase a £500,000 home in East Grinstead.

In order to gain further funds through a re-mortgage, she gave false information to Northern Rock which secured the release of a large amount of equity.

During the break-up with his former wife and the start of his relationship with Newman, Sciberras forged his wife’s signature on re-mortgage application forms and used part of the stolen money in a new build property investment, which later led to him cashing a cheque for £100,000 at the Wallington branch of Barclays.

When Sutton police officers visited Newman’s home in Canvey Island in February 2010, a further fraudulent loan was discovered in the name of Teresa Newman which released a further £41,000 and documents revealed the purchase of a new-build property in Turkey.

Further documents found linked Sciberras to property developments in Spain.

At a confiscation hearing at Croydon Crown Court on December 2011, Sciberras was ordered to pay £57,000 from identified assets towards £100,000 criminal benefit he had obtained from Northern Rock, while last month, Newman was ordered to pay £55,321.