How 'evil' pair pulled off rent scam

By Sally Chidzoy
Home Affairs Correspondent, BBC Look East

Richard and Hazel Jerome squatted in two homes, the court heard

Hazel and Richard Jerome have been described as "evil" by a police officer investigating their crimes.

Mrs Jerome's job as a primary school teacher in Milton Keynes gave a respectable front to their scams.

Mr Jerome would claim to be an international businessman and the pair would talk of their luxury lifestyle, claiming to have homes in Jamaica and Barbados, but in reality they were squatting in upmarket UK properties.

They made cash offers on homes which were on sale with vacant possession, involving two homes worth more than £800,000. Then they would spin stories explaining delays in the purchase, and ask to rent in the interim.

Huntingdon Crown Court sentenced Mr Jerome to a 15-month prison term after he admitted fraud and deception.

His wife was given a 10-month term suspended for two years after she admitted fraud.

A thatched cottage in the Buckinghamshire village of Stoke Hammond near Milton Keynes was one upmarket home targeted by the couple.

It was on the market for more than £500,000. Unfortunately for them, it was owned by a leading criminal barrister and her husband.

Marion Smullen QC, whose husband died while the case was going through the courts, said they quickly realised the Jeromes had no intention of paying rent.

'Bailiffs called'

She said: "It became obvious pretty soon that nothing was happening, they kept stalling and stalling and I remember finally realising that nothing was going to happen and they really were crooks."

Nick Jarvis and his wife Janet also fell victim to the Jeromes.

Mrs Jarvis had worked as a teacher alongside Hazel Jerome at Willen Primary school in Milton Keynes.

The Jeromes told Mrs Jarvis that their plans to buy a house had fallen through after the vendor died from a heart attack on the day contracts were due to be exchanged.

They told her that they urgently needed a house to rent. Mrs Jarvis rented to them for £700 a month, £500 below the market rental value.

Janet Jarvis died from cancer during the case. Nick Jarvis said he attended six court hearings before the house could be reclaimed.

The Jeromes had left Janet Jarvis's property and moved into the barrister's cottage a day before the bailiffs called.

'No remorse'

The Jeromes were eventually arrested in a rental car which had been reported stolen for non-payment of rental charges.

Det Sgt John Baston, from Thames Valley Police, said: "They knew that once they got their feet in the door the county court process of getting them out is long and drawn out and during that time they can use the telephone, they can switch the light on, they use the gas, they don't pay council tax...

"They are a cold, calculating, career criminal couple... they showed no remorse, no feelings, they are evil."

In his defence statement, Richard Jerome challenged the accounts of the late John Smullen and the late Janet Jarvis, claiming he only had dealings with them.

At the last minute the Jeromes pleaded guilty to two charges of fraud.

He also pleaded guilty to an additional charge of fraud and a charge of obtaining money by deception.

Nick Jarvis is still fighting to get all his money back as he said that is what his late wife would have wanted.

Police have appealed for anyone who had dealings with the Jeromes to contact officers.

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Hazel Jerome used her teaching job to give a respectable front to the couple's scams