‘I blame some men I met on Gumtree,’ says bogus estate agent

A bogus estate agent who fleeced tenants out of more than £160,000 in rental deposits claims her abusive lover controlled the ‘financial side’ of the scam. Natalie Heffernan, 40, has admitted defrauding 38 tenants and landlords in the fraud which ran from 2015 to 2018. The mother-of-three claims duress at the hands of former lover Chris Gosling but says she also hired three men on Gumtree to help her carry out the swindle. The judge, Mr Recorder Richard Thomas is…