A Suffolk-based letting agent who left customers £80,000 out of pocket when his business closed has been jailed for 34 months.

Before Ipswich Crown Court on Friday (August 26) was 46-year-old Francis Smart, who was the proprietor of Smart Residential Letting Agents, which was based in Newmarket.

He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two offences of fraud by abuse of position by retaining rent and deposits.

Sentencing him, Recorder Gabrielle Posner described the case as “sad”.

She said: “It is sad for the victims of your offences and sad to hear how your life has spiralled out of control."

Officers from Suffolk Trading Standards, along with the National Trading Standards Tri Regional Investigations Team, began investigating Smart, of Dowding Avenue, Cambridge, and his company in autumn 2018.

It followed numerous complaints from landlords and tenants who were unable to make contact with the company after its premises at 5B Wellington Street, Newmarket, closed in July 2018, leaving them out of pocket and without answers.

A number of people who had got Smart to act as the letting agent for their properties and to collect rent from tenants were spoken to and there was evidence of rent being withheld in relation to 24 properties amounting to £33,587.

It was also discovered that Smart had pocketed deposits from tenants totalling £43,579 in relation to 38 properties which should have been paid into a deposit protection scheme

Jude Durr, for Smart, said his client had run a successful letting agency but had got into financial difficulties in 2015.

He said Smart regretted the failure of his business and the loss to the victims of the offences.

A Suffolk Trading Standards spokesman said: "Many of these landlords entrusted Smart Residential with their rental properties, and to hold tenancy deposits on their behalf.

"By law, these deposits should have been placed into a Deposit Protection Scheme – offering protection to tenants in the event of a landlord or letting agency facing financial difficulties. We believe that Mr Smart failed to use this scheme, resulting in substantial losses for his victim.

"We spoke to over 30 witnesses, with numerous landlords telling us that they didn’t receive rental income and had to refund tenancy deposits out of their own pocket.

"This resulted in individual losses ranging from £700 to over £8,000 and an estimated total loss in excess of £80,000."

In January this year, Smart was jailed for 28 months after he assaulted his former partner after letting himself into her home while she was in bed.

On that occasion Smart had admitted assault causing actual bodily harm and sending malicious communications with intent to cause distress to his former partner, from Kennett, near Newmarket.