A disgraced former estate agent has paid his victims around £110,000 but must pay another £5,000 or so in the immediate future if he is to abide by the terms of a £114,456 compensation order.
Roger Darnton, who once ran his own agency in the town of Guisborough, was jailed in July 2019 for stealing money from clients and others in the area.
Darnton - dubbed 'Mr Guisborough' for his community work in the North Yorkshire town - was found guilty of abusing his position as power of attorney and as the executor of a will of a prominent local farmer whose property and assets totalled about £2.4m.
In the end, Darnton defrauded the man’s estate to the total of £97,778 while also defrauding a woman in her 90s of more than £3,500 and keeping the rent he had received from a tenant.
He used money to pay personal bills, a mortgage, bank loans and a large quantity of antiques and the costs of their haulage and storage. Darnton’s defence claimed that he had used some of the money to stave off debts run up by his estate agency, which closed in October 2018.
A court late last week heard that Darnton risks a further penalty if he fails to fulfil the complete compensation within the next 28 days.
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