Teen con artist Corsie jailed for £15k rent fraud

THE fraudster son of former world champion bowler Richard Corsie went ahead with an elaborate flat rental scam despite being recognised by the owner of the property.

Serial conman Cameron Corsie, 19, was jailed for two years yesterday for a 15,000 series of frauds where he swindled victims out of deposits and rent for plush flats.

He visited the landlord's Holyrood apartment to arrange to rent the property after giving the fake name of "Campbell Wilson" over the phone. The landlord immediately recognised Corsie as a former pupil at George Heriot's, where he was in the same year as her son.

Corsie admitted he had given a false name but promised he did not intend to scam her, and the landlord finally decided to "take him at his word".

Corsie then used the address overlooking Arthur's Seat to con student Sofia Jiang, 20, from Bologna in Italy, into handing over 300 to rent the flat in January.

The scam, revealed in the Evening News, came to light when Ms Jiang arrived with her suitcases and used her keys to enter the flat, only to discovered the real owner inside.

The landlord, who asked not to be named, said: "When he came round in person, he knew that I recognised him and told me who he was. He told me he wouldn't let the place out. I knew he had been to prison, but I decided to take him at his word as he might have turned over a new leaf"

Corsie carried out a wave of scams over a seven-month period, and previously admitted 17 charges of fraud and one of attempted fraud before being sentenced at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday.

He pretended he was letting out flats at various addresses in Edinburgh and got his victims to transfer the money to bank accounts he set up. But in fact Corsie had no legal title to the flats. The offences took place between June 10 last year and January 17. Corsie also sold music fans tickets for T in the Park, which he did not have, and told another victim he was raising funds to save Edinburgh's St Margaret's School from closure.

The teenager started offending just eight days after he was released early from his last period of detention. He was handed an eight-month sentence in March last year for a series of frauds worth 22,000, but he was released on June 2.

Sentencing him yesterday, Sheriff Graeme Warner told Corsie: "You are a nasty, dangerous, horrible person. The only way to deal with you is to take you out of circulation.

"These are truly grotesque crimes perpetrated to some extent against vulnerable victims, people who are desperate for schools to stay open, people desperate for accommodation and kids desperate for tickets to a pop concert."You must have started planning these matters while you were still in custody."

Corsie's Commonwealth Gold-winning father Richard Corsie MBE has said that he wants to be disassociated from his son.