A Devon property manager has admitted a three-year fraud which netted him almost half-a-million pounds. Magistrates at Plymouth heard how management agent Mark Postle-Hacon had systematically removed more than £400,000 from his clients bank accounts. The 41-year-old businessman admitted a single charge of running his company, PHC Management Ltd, with intent to defraud creditors.
The company specialises in the day-to-day management of residential and commercial property and the alleged offences began in December, 2009, and were finally detected in March last year.
“The defendant is the managing director of a building management company set up in 2002,” Gareth Warden, for the Crown Prosecution Service, told the court. “The figures involved here are almost half-a-million pounds.
“It oversees in excess of 14 properties each with its own bank account. The company carries out building and garden maintenance and sorts out bills and insurance, all paid for by the owners,” added Warden.
He told the court that the offences came to light when a PHC Management Ltd client informed the police that more than £200 had disappeared from his bank account. Postle-Hacon had no way of paying back any of the missing money, magistrates heard.
Through his defence solicitor Postle-Hacon, of Lockington Avenue, Hartley, Plymouth, said that while he admitted there was money unaccounted for and he had pleaded guilty, he did not accept the fraud figures given to the court.
Magistrates confirmed that his offence was too severe for him to be dealt with by a lower court and adjourned the case to Plymouth Crown Court. Postle-Hacon will be sentenced on Friday March 21. He was granted unconditional bail.
Speaking after the hearing a police spokesman said that claims had been made that the management company had forged bank statements and stolen funds from client accounts. He also confirmed PHC Management Ltd was headed by Postle-Hacon with his wife acting as its director of marketing and business development.
Listed on OurProperty.co.uk — an unconnected property services directory — PHC Management is said to based at 19 Mary Seacole Road, Plymouth. Its own website has been disabled, but on the directory it claims: “PHC Management Ltd offers customer focused property and facilities management services to residential and commercial clients … It places the utmost importance on building and developing relationships with our clients through sharing objectives and goals in the pursuit of excellence.”
Through its three full-time staff the financial services it offered included payroll services, book-keeping and annual accounts preparation, annual service charge budget preparation and ground rent collection and service charge administration.
According to the CompanyCheck website Postle-Hacon “holds three current appointments, has resigned from 14 companies and held appointments at five dissolved companies”. It adds that “the combined cash at bank value for all businesses where Mark holds a current appointment equals £486, with a combined assets value of £297,499 and liabilities of £406,616”.
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