Jail for fraudster as courts take his Bradfield St George home

A serial fraudster has been jailed for 11 offences only seven months after his home was seized to pay off his debts from previous crimes.

David Aves, formerly of Freewood Street, Bradfield St George, was jailed for four years by Ipswich Crown Court last Wednesday having previously pleaded guilty to one count of fraud and 10 of dishonestly retaining wrongful credit He defrauded the 11 victims of £56,650 between October 2015 and April 2016.

The latest offences relate to items such as generators, tractors, antiques and vintage cars, which Aves advertised on Gumtree and AutoTrader.

He arranged for the buyer to transfer the money to a bank account but buyers did not receive the items and Aves would cut-off all contact.

Aves' previous fraud offences stretch back more than 30 years, but in the absence of tangible assets, he evaded post-conviction asset recovery proceedings either via the former Criminal Justice Act or the 2002 Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).

But with the advent of POCA a decision was made to ensure that following any conviction where he may have benefited from criminal activity, POCA confiscation proceedings were instigated, if only to ensure that the court certified his benefit from his crimes.

This approach was repeated several times as it was known Aves was likely to be the sole beneficiary of his mother's estate, which included a £400,000 property.

Following the death of his mother in 2013, police financial investigators in Suffolk, working with the Eastern Region Specialist Operations Unit (ERSOU), immediately obtained a POCA restraint order against Aves, who by then had an outstanding sum of more than £210,000 in POCA confiscation orders.

By October 2017 this total had risen to about £257,000.

Receivers appointed by the court obtained a repossession order on the Bradfield St George bungalow he inherited and bailiffs took possession of it on October 5, 2017, bringing fruition to a long-term objective begun 14 years earlier.

The property will be sold and from the proceeds Aves will be forced to pay back the earlier orders.

Det Chf Insp Martin Peters, of the Cyber and Economic Crime Directorate at ERSOU, said: "Aves will notice a marked difference after his release from this latest prison sentence, in so much that he will no longer be able to return to the home where he committed many of his offences, bringing misery to dozens of victims."