Couple jailed for total of 13 and half years for Renfrewshire property fraud

A man who organised a large-scale property fraud has been jailed for 11 years after what was believed to have been the longest criminal trial in UK legal history.

Edwin McLaren, 52, put together the £1.6 million property fraud scheme, which involved duping vulnerable victims in financial difficulty to sign over their homes.

He was found guilty of 29 charges in May following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow which began in September 2015 and heard evidence over 320 days.

He was sentenced to 11 years in jail on Tuesday.

His wife Lorraine McLaren, 51, was found guilty of two charges, involving a fraudulent mortgage application on their own home. She was sentenced to two-and-a-half years.

Prosecutors said Mr McLaren preyed on vulnerable people and arranged for the title deeds of their homes to be transferred to his associates without the victims' knowledge.

The trial lasted so long as the court heard evidence for a number of days from each witness on topics such as conveyancing and accountancy.

Some witnesses were vulnerable and one woman was so ill that the court took evidence from her in her house via video link.

Her living room was set up as a court, with a macer present to pass documents to her.

Only 12 jurors from the original 15 remained at the end of the case and at one stage there was a break of three weeks as one juror got married.

Passing sentence on Tuesday, judge Lord Stewart said: “The evidence shows frankly breathtaking dishonesty in every aspect of your enterprise.

“The jury have found you an outright liar.''

As a financial adviser, police said Edwin McLaren had the background knowledge to put together and execute the scheme.

Through adverts in the national press for companies advertising as property solutions or home sale solutions, McLaren targeted vulnerable people in financial distress as a result of family bereavement, debt or illness.

He would either offer to buy their house or lend them money to clear their debts and in return, he would get what he would say was a part-share ownership of their property.

But in fact, their properties were being transferred wholesale to the names of others, unknown to them, meaning they lost the title deeds to their homes.

McLaren would drip-feed them money, but the victims did not get the amount they were expecting.

In mitigation, his defence lawyer Mark Moir said McLaren was a first time offender and that the length of the trial had contributed to mental health issues.

He said McLaren maintains his innocence.

DS Andy Lawson in welcoming the sentence:

In mitigation for Lorraine McLaren, her lawyer Kevin McCallum said her husband had a “controlling role in financial matters''.

He said there was no evidence she was involved in defrauding vulnerable people and described Edwin McLaren as the “driving force'' of the scheme.

Mr McCallum urged the judge to consider a community payback order rather than custody.

Lord Stewart said the mortgage was financed by her husband's property fraud and the jury must have found that she knew money transferred into her bank account came from the proceeds of crime.

He added: “Anything less than 30 months in custody would fail to reflect the criminality involved.''

Concerns were first raised by a woman who made a complaint to Fife Constabulary in 2012 because she had not been paid the full amount for her house in Cowdenbeath.

Police worked out there were further properties linked to this incident, and the case was transferred to the Financial Investigation Unit at Paisley which found a lot more were involved.

Edwin McLaren was snared after a police investigation involving up to 100 officers discovered a massive fraudulent scheme, with 29 properties appearing on the indictment.

Prosecutors said he has shown no remorse and claimed he was helping people.

Addressing McLaren, the judge said: “It appears your motivation was to secure funds from mortgage lenders to fund an affluent lifestyle.''

During the scheme he enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle, with four cars, including a Bentley, and holidays in Dubai, police said.

Concluding the trial, Lord Stewart thanked everyone involved in such a “long and difficult case''

Lindsey Miller, Deputy Crown Agent at the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service, said:

“It is rare to have a case of such complexity and I want to pay tribute to the hard work and dedication of the team who brought about this successful prosecution and secured justice for the many victims of Edwin McLaren.

“The case was put together first by the painstaking work of colleagues from Police Scotland and then by the expertise of specialist prosecutors from the Crown.

“McLaren’s actions were conducted in such a covert way that it was an incredibly demanding investigation which took a considerable time to unpick the chain of events before that evidence could then be led in court.

“The prosecuting team were able to put in front of the jury compelling evidence and the story of a man who was calculated in his deception and showed no remorse for the victims of his deceit.”

Edwin McLaren’s wife, Lorraine McLaren, was convicted of two charges including one of mortgage fraud. She was sentenced to two and half years in prison.

The fraud consisted of targeting those who may have been in financial difficulty and convincing them to sign over their homes before duping them into transferring the proceeds of the sale to a bank account controlled by McLaren.

In some cases, he provided a loan to pay off the mortgage as well as other debts but had instead arranged the sale of their property to a third party.

Cash from the fraud was then used as deposit for the next fraudulent purchase.

He was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow having been found guilty in May 2017 after a trial which had started in September 2015