A ‘dishonest developer’ from north London tried to scam an Oxford pensioner out of his house, a court heard.
Lewis McEwan, 42, conspired with a man calling himself ‘Geoffrey Simmons’ to try and persuade the homeowner, 70s, into handing over his detached 1920s property in Wytham Street as part of an illegal equity release deal.
The victim was told that his house was structurally unsound and the only way to pay for the repairs would be to sign up to the equity release scheme.
That deal would have seen him hand over the deeds to his property in exchange for an £87,500 lump sum and the right to live in the house rent-free for the rest of his life.
Prosecutor Richard Heller, for Oxfordshire County Council’s trading standards team, branded McEwan – a former car salesman who now owns a string of properties in Liverpool, London and the Home Counties – a ‘dishonest developer’.
“That’s all he is,” he told the jury.
On Thursday, jurors at Oxford Crown Court found him guilty by a majority of 11 to one of conspiracy to defraud.
During the trial, the jury heard that the conspiracy was unmasked when a set of rogue traders who were – separately – charging the homeowner for below-par or unnecessary home improvement works called Thames Valley Police. The force handed the case over to Oxfordshire Trading Standards.
The court heard that a man calling himself ‘Geoffrey Simmons’ knocked at the pensioner’s home in Wytham Street in…
