Conman who claimed to be pals with Katie Price & Stormzy swindled disabled widower out of £2k with Gumtree ‘house scam’
A CONMAN who claimed to be pals with Katie Price and Stormzy allegedly swindled a disabled widower out of £2k in a Gumtree ‘house scam’.
Single dad-of-two Mark Spratley was left in floods of tears after paying the deposit on a dream home advertised on the website – losing his life savings when the alleged landlord disappeared.
Cops are now hunting for the alleged scammer who promised the family a new property.
Mark, from Berkshire, said he had spotted the ad on Gumtree for a three-bed house to rent in Chandler’s Ford, Hants, on July 14.
The charity founder then set up a meeting with the alleged landlord, who called himself ‘Ryan’, to discuss renting the home.
Mark said the location and size of the home looked “ideal” for his family after the mother of his children died, as well as storing his charity’s educational donations.
Mark runs the Spratley Charity Foundation which raises funds for education in Sierra Leone and has fundraisers including Blue singer Lee Ryan and British reggae singer Apache Indian.
And the 44-year-old dad said he was blown away during the meeting with the landlord who promised not only the home but also claimed he could use his showbiz connections with Stormzy, Katie Price, Peter Andre and Eddie Hearn to support Mark’s foundation.
Mark said: “He started saying, ‘I’ve got connections with artists’ and celebs like Katie Price. He said, ‘I’m going to help you in other ways’.
“He said, ‘you are one in a million, you have inspired me, I want to do more’. He was really going at it. He wasn’t talking about anything to do with money for at least an hour.”
‘I’M GOING TO HELP YOU’
Mark then paid £2,000 as a deposit for the property, convinced the man was legit after sending him his business details and showing him his Companies House listing.
He met up with a man claiming to be ‘Ryan’, who posed with one of Mark’s charity t-shirts and the rental contract after the dad handed over the £2,000 in cash.
Mark said: “I thought this was crazy… but I gave in. He still sat there with me for probably another half an hour. He said ‘go and see the house, any problems, you call me, no problem’.”
But once he handed over the money, ‘Ryan’ disappeared, and Mark has been unable to contact him since.
Mark said he headed to the address he had been given for the property but was left horrified after the homeowner said they had no idea what he was talking about.
He said: “I knocked on the door and this person said, ‘no this has nothing to do with me’.
“He said, ‘I’m going to be very honest with you, I lived here for 40 years, my back garden doesn’t look like that one’, so he must have given me a picture of someone else’s back garden.
“I got emotional, I got a bit upset, so we went off, then we came back and I spoke to the next door neighbour again who, ‘I think you’ve been conned’.
“She called the person who owns the house, they called the police out. I just cried to be honest because it was a lot of money.”
I thought this was crazy… but I gave in
Mark Spratley
Mark said he believed the Gumtree ad had been published using a string of fake photos pulled together from different properties.
He has tried to contact ‘Ryan’ several times but has not heard back since paying him the cash.
And he said he was devastated after pulling together the cash to pay for the rental home.
He explained that his son Denham had sold his PlayStation 5, MacBook and electric scooter to raise half the funds while he had borrowed money from family and friends.
The charity founder, whose only income is disability benefits, has suffered from painful muscle spasms caused by spinal injury in 2018 due to the stress of the con, which left his upper body “L-shaped”.
He said: “My son sold his new PlayStation, he sold his electric scooter, his TV, I sold stuff, people lent me money.”
He said Denim raised £1,000 selling his MacBook, PlayStation 5 for £280, electric scooter pro 2 for £500, Sony projector and Sony 3D LCD TV.
‘ITS DISGUSTING’
Mark, who also has a 13-year-old daughter Maya, added: “I’m penniless now. We are broke.”
He has since reported the scam to police, who have launched an investigation.
A spokeswoman for Thames Valley Police said: “At around 1.35pm on Saturday 17 July a report of fraud by false representation was made to Thames Valley Police.
“We are currently investigating the report. Anyone with any information should call 101 and quote 43210317283.”
A spokeswoman from Gumtree said:“At Gumtree, the safety of our users is our absolute priority and we were sorry to hear about Mark’s experience.
“We do not tolerate fraudulent activity on our site, so we urge anyone who thinks they may have come across a scam or experiences suspicious behaviour to report it to us immediately via the ‘Report this ad’ button so that our dedicated trust and safety team can take necessary action.
“This could include removing adverts and blocking offending users, as well as supporting law enforcement in their investigations.
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“We require that property ads on our site comply with government regulations for property advertising.
“We also list safety advice for prospective tenants on our website, which recommends that all potential tenants check the relevant paperwork, ask to see proof of ownership, and ensure a tenancy agreement is in place before paying deposits or holding fees.”
The Sun made attempts to contact the number which was used by the alleged scammer to speak to Mark.
