MORE than 30 landlords and tenants in Gloucestershire were cheated out of almost £150,000 by crooked lettings agent Jeffrey Hoslett, a court heard today.

His victims will only get about 13 percent of their money back because all but £19,500 of the money has gone, Gloucester Crown Court was told.

Hoslett, formerly of Stroud, but now of Crosshills, Keighley, West Yorkshire, was jailed for two years after he admitted defrauding clients over a five year period from April 2007 to April 2012.

Hoslett committed the offences while running Cotswold Residential Lettings in Stroud.

He was supposed to collect deposits or rent from tenants and pass it on to landlords.

But prosecutor James Tucker said he pocketed £146,092 of the money, defrauding 33 victims.

The vast majority of the victims were landlords and the rest were tenants apart from a plumber and a printer who were not paid for services they carried out.

Most of the victims were from the Stroud area, including Painswick, Rodborough, Ebley and Dudbridge but some were from further afield with one from Charfield and one from Cheltenham.

"Our case is that in relation to each of these people the defendant acted dishonestly," Mr Tucker said.

"He purported to enter into contracts and secure deposits which were to be paid into a secure scheme but those deposits were lost.

"Money collected from tenants should have been paid to landlords and landladies but it was dishonestly taken by the defendant."

Mr Tucker said financial investigators had found that Hoslett now has only £19,500 assets - money left over after the sale of his Stroud home.

Recorder Michael de Navarro QC made an order under the Proceeds of Crime Act confiscating the £19,569.71.  Mr Tucker said that would mean the victims being paid between 1p3 and 14p in the pound of what was taken from them.

Stephen Thomas, defending, said Hoslett, who was of previous good character, suffers from an ongoing heart condition.

He said Hoslett stole the money to try to keep his business afloat after he got into difficulties paying tax owed on transcations involving landlords based abroad.

"He knows what he did was incredibly wrong," said Mr Thomas. "But his trading was not fraudulent from the start.

"He bought the business in 2007 from his previous boss.  It seems landlords were not starting to notice shortfalls until about November 2011.

"The reason for the shortfalls was that he had paid in part a very large tax bill which was left over by the previous owner. A number of landlords were overseas and tax had to be deducted in this country before money was paid to them.

"Unfortunately the previous owner did not do that and because he took over an existing company he became liable for the tax bill of £116,000.

"The taxman wanted £20,000 to go away for a period of time. He was in a desperate situation and he paid that £20,000 with clients funds out of desperation.  He should of course have closed the business straightaway but he was very naive in relation to business matters.

"He did not recover from paying that tax bill . He did not seek any financial advice and he was effectively from then on robbing Peter to pay Paul.

"Of course he had respect for the previous owner, who he said was like a mother to him. She said the company was worth £65,000 to £70,000 and he raised finance when she sold it to him.  He took no advice and didn't really know that it was a failing business.

"He has he has been an absolute fool - in his own words totally gormless  - in doing what he did. "

Hoslett's lifestyle had been far from luxurious and he was now facing bankruptcy, added Mr Thomas.

Recorder Michael de Navarro QC told Hoslett "A lot of money was taken from a lot of people over a long period of time.  Even though I accept this was not initially of your own making you proceeded with it over a significant period of time.

"The losers will get less than 15 percent of what they have lost."

The SNJ would like to clarify that Cotswold Residential Lettings of Stroud was in no way connected to Cotswold Lettings and Sales based in Chipping Norton, Oxon.