Director of Scottish Women’s Premier League Jailed for Fraud!
We’ve talked about landlords committing rental fraud – but what about tenants?!
Yes, it’s not just landlords that are capable of committing rental fraud – a tenant was recently jailed for SIX MONTHS for defrauding her landlord.
Who was the tenant
Now that I’ve told you that a tenant was defrauding their landlord and was sentenced to jail time, you probably have a picture in your head of the sort of tenant it is. You’re probably imagining someone who simply wouldn’t pass referencing, but on this occasion, simply fell through the cracks.
Well, think again!!
The tenant in question was 50 year old Zola McGoldrick, also known as Zola Affley, who was a director of the Scottish Women’s Premier League (SWPL).
She claimed that her accounts had been frozen due to being caught up in an international money laundering scheme. But it was all just an elaborate ruse to live rent free in her Edinburgh city centre apartment.
Who was the landlord?
Zola’s elderly landlord was 74-year-old Roderick Glen. He had rented the flat in Edinburgh’s Marchmont area to Ms McGoldrick and her children in September 2018 for £1,500 per month, allowing her to move in before the deposit was paid into his bank account.
When the deposit failed to arrive, he was given ‘a complicated explanation’ in which Ms McGoldrick claimed she was a victim of an international money laundering scam. As proof, she provided Mr Glenn with copies of letters from RBS, Lloyds and HMRC, which confirmed the problems she claimed were preventing her from accessing her bank accounts.
Mr Glenn said:
It was unlike anything I had ever heard but I believed it. I was shocked and surprised but had no reason to believe it was not real.
Out of the goodness of his heart and respect for what appeared to be a highly stressful situation for Ms McGoldrick, Mr Glenn allowed the family to continue living in the property, believing he would receive the money owed to him once the issue was sorted out.
So what actually happened?
But, as you will no doubt be unsurprised to hear, the situation was never sorted out… because the situation never existed in the first place! Ms McGoldrick and her family lived in Mr Glenn’s property from September 2018 to May 2020, without paying a penny in rent, wracking up £28,438.75 in owed rent.
Shockingly, Ms McGoldrick denied any wrongdoing! She blamed her husband for forging the letters from the bank.
However, despite her denials, Ms McGoldrick was found guilty in October 2023 and sentenced to six months jail time. As you might expect, she was also forced to resign from her position as a director with the SWPL following the guilty verdict.
Her defence agent Michael Ellis said, ‘it is clear Mrs McGoldrick feels apologetic about the impact on her previous landlords’, which is little if any consolation to Mr Glenn who is out of pocket by almost £30,000.
What can you learn from this?
This is scary stuff as, on paper, Ms McGoldrick probably looked like the ideal tenant, which is possibly why Mr Glenn felt that she would ultimately be good for the money.
It’s a tricky line to tread, as we have said – and we stand by this – that you should consider working with your tenant if they hit a bump in the road. Say a reliable tenant loses their job and struggles with the following month’s rent – there is an argument here that you know this is just an unfortunate blip and you can work together to make sure they can keep your home and missed payments are made up.
However…
- Don’t let a tenant move in without a deposit. Moving is an expensive time, but there’s really no reason at all that a tenant shouldn’t have ringfenced the deposit as one of the most important things to pay for! You don’t know this tenant yet, you haven’t built up a relationship of trust and reliability – the deposit issue could be the first sign of trouble ahead…
- Deal with issues as soon as possible. Whether they’re a long-term tenant or brand new, it’s good to nip things in the bud. Contact them about missed payments as soon as possible and don’t forget this works both ways – if your tenant contacts you with an issue, say a leak, for example, act as soon as you can to save in the long run.
So there you go – even the best looking tenants on paper can really let you down. Have you found the same? Tell us all about it in the comments section below.
