A building company director who showed a “flagrant disregard” for safety regulations when he provided false building work completion certificates during the sale of flats in Suffolk has been jailed for three and a half years.
Wayne Murfet, who was the boss of Lors Homes, supplied 36 fake Building Control Completion Certificates to purchasers of flats on The Grosvenor complex in Newmarket High Street, Ipswich Crown Court heard.
During his sentencing hearing on Tuesday ( October 1) 41-year-old Murfet was accused of cutting corners for profit and exposing flat owners, who have been left unable to sell their flats, to an “intolerable level of risk" to their lives.
The court heard the bogus certificates were supplied to purchasers of flats in the complex as part of the conveyancing process and that Murfet stood to gain more than £5milliion if he sold the 36 flats for a minimum of £150,000 each.
Andrew Copeland, prosecuting for Suffolk Trading Standards, said as a result of faults in the flats residents had incurred extra costs ranging from £3,000 to £33,000 to carry out remedial works to make them safe.
He claimed Murfet’s dishonesty had funded a luxurious lifestyle for him and his family including £3,000 a month for private school fees.
He also told the court that Murfet had provided last minute documents about bankruptcy which hadn’t allowed time for them to be checked.
Sentencing Murfet, Recorder Emma Nash said the victims of the offences wouldn’t have bought their flats if they had known building work certificates hadn’t been issued and had been left to deal with the consequences of Murfet’s actions.
She said his aim had been to make sales as fast as possible.
In addition to being jailed Murfet was disqualified from being a company director for seven years.
A hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act will take place on a May 7 next year when Murfet's companies will be sentenced.
The court heard that Suffolk Trading Standards were alerted in 2019 by West Suffolk Council Building Control.
The building control certificates provided by Murfet were similar to those issued by Building Control but had not been issued by them.
The certificates were supplied to the purchasers by their own solicitors, who in turn had received them via the developer’s solicitors.
The buyers then purchased their properties believing them to have been signed off.
Following the discovery, West Suffolk Building Control inspected the properties and found breaches of building regulations and fire safety concerns with the building.
As a result, a 24-hour waking watch had to be installed in the building.
The court heard the building had since been sold by the developer and West Suffolk Building Control was collaborating with the new owners to have things put right so that it meets building regulations.
During the investigation it then emerged a further false building control completion certificate had been supplied by Murfet to a purchaser of a property in Cambridgeshire through another company of his called Murfet (Burrough Green) Limited.
Murfet, of Freckenham Road, Chippenham, had denied making or supplying articles for use in fraud on or before October 11, 2018, in relation to 36 false certificates of completion of building works, intending they would be used in the conveyancing of 36 flats at, The Grosvenor, 146-148 High Street, Newmarket.
A jury found him guilty of the charges and also on a charge in relation to a house at the Paddocks, Brinkley Road, Burroughs Green, Newmarket.
Murfet and Lors Homes Ltd were also found guilty of fraud by failing to disclose to the purchasers of six flats at 146-148 High Street that building works had not been certified as complete by the building control department of West Suffolk Council.
Murfet and Murfet (Burrough Green) Ltd were also found guilty of failing to disclose to the purchaser of a plot at Brinkley Road, Burroughs Green, Newmarket that building works at the property had not been certified as complete by the building control department of East Cambridgeshire District Council.
Julian Christopher KC for Murfet said his client acknowledged the stress and distress caused to purchasers of the flats.
He said that as a result of the court proceedings the family home had been repossessed and Murfet had been treated as a social pariah in the local community.
He said there was no basis for the prosecution to suggest Murfet had enriched himself by committing the offences and said his client was appealing against bankruptcy.
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