A LETTING agent who defrauded landlords and tenants out of thousands of pounds has been spared a jail sentence, while her victims, including a Runcorn landlord, will receive no compensation.

Becky Westby kept more than £5,000 of her customers’ money through Aspire Lettings, failing to return deposits and not passing on rent payments.

But the 33-year-old avoided a jail sentence at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday and will not be made to pay back her ill-gotten gains.

The court heard that Westby began working in the industry in 2011 before becoming a director at Absolute Lettings in May the same year.

In May 2014 she resigned her directorship with Absolute Lettings and claimed that the business had sub-letted properties without permission, failed to return deposits and not passed on rent payments to homeowners in letters sent to clients.

Westby, from Warrington, encouraged them to move their properties to her new company Aspire Lettings.

But she would go on to defraud clients out of £5,509.74 over a nine-month period between July 2014 and April 2015.

This included £486.20 in rent payments that were not passed on to the landlord of a property on Suffolk Street in Runcorn.

She also failed to give the owners of three properties in Warrington a total of £1,126.30 in rent payments and did not return a £475 deposit for an apartment in the town.

Westby also received at least £1,258.99 to pay bills including council tax, gas and electricity for another property in Warrington, services that she did not carry out.

A further £2,103.50 in rent payments was not passed on to the owners of properties in Leigh, Atherton and Winsford.

One victim, who had two properties managed by Aspire Lettings and did not wish to be named, said: “This woman betrayed my trust – this was my pension income.

“She told me lies, and it left the tenants and I in a worrying position.

"I was devastated.”

Towards the end of the offending period, Westby made a ‘large number of personal withdrawals’ from the company’s bank account.

Prosecuting barrister Catherine Ellis said: “She treated the money as if it was her own to spend for her own purposes.”

Westby, who was described as being of previous good character, had earlier admitted 10 counts of fraud, while a further 15 charges will lie on file.

Recorder Louis Browne sentenced her to a six-month prison sentence suspended for a year and ordered her to complete a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 10 days.

The Crown Prosecution Service had made an application for compensation for Westby’s victims plus court costs, but recorder Browne did not impose the order as he believed it would be ‘toothless’ due to the defendant, who had brought packed bags with her to court, being bankrupt.

Sentencing, he told Westby: “In essence what you did was misappropriate monies given to you for specific purposes for your own use.

“I am prepared to give you a chance by suspending this sentence, and if you show good character for 12 months you will hear no more about this.

“If you do commit any further offences in this period you are liable to be brought back to court and you are likely to be sent to prison.”