A former letting agency boss has admitted she scammed almost £50,000 from dozens of tenants and landlords.

Victoria Steele, 51, pleaded guilty to 19 charges of fraud by false representation related to her running of Swaffham-based letting and estate agency business eHomes Limited, reports the Eastern Daily Press.

A police investigation was launched in 2018 after up to 40 people and groups, including a landlord recovering from cancer and a Methodist church, contacted police and national hotline Action Fraud to claim they were owed money.

Steele, of School Road, Holme Hale, near Necton, entered guilty pleas at Norwich Crown Court to the charges that she dishonestly defrauded funds for personal gain. The fraud spanned a period from November 2011 to June 2018 when Steele was eHomes’ director and sole shareholder. It had been formerly known as Prestige Properties Limited.

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A previous hearing at Norwich Magistrates’ Court heard that the charges centre on claims that landlord rental payments were withheld and that tenant deposits were not secured within a government-approved deposit protection scheme.

The total amount defrauded was £47,685; some victims lost more than £4,100, others are said to have been defrauded out of between £2,200 and £690. The eHomes offices in Swaffham closed in 2018 and was officially dissolved in April 2019.

Clive Norman, one of those who lost money and was significantly involved in pushing police and the CPS to prosecute, said many victims had faced a lengthy wait to see Steele admit her crimes in court. “In the nine years that this case has been ongoing, some victims have died, some have moved and many have given up on seeing justice being handed down,” he told the paper.

Steele will be sentenced on 1 September.

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