A Coventry man convicted of mortgage fraud has been found guilty of conning the city council out of thousands of pounds – from his prison cell.
49-year old Michael Browne from Earlsdon had been banned from accessing his bank account of any of his assets when he was sentenced to three years inside in September last year.
But he managed to get Coventry City Council to divert his housing allowance from his account to his friends and also persuaded him to collect rent money for his houses.
He’s now had 12 months added onto his jail term for perverting the course of justice.
Detective Inspector Chris Berrow, who leads the West Midlands Regional Asset Recovery Team (RART) said: “Browne has obstructed the course of justice throughout this entire investigation.”
“He deliberately set out to ignore a restraining order imposed on him by the courts, which prevented him from dealing with his assets, as punishment following his conviction for mortgage fraud in 2010.”
“Over a 13-month period, Browne has cheated the authorities out of thousands of pounds and shown a complete disregard for the terms given to him as a consequence of his criminal activities.”
Browne was among a gang charged as part of Operation Closedown, a major investigation tackling crime on the streets of Coventry.
I read elsewhere that Browne is from Canley rather than Earlsdon.
