A COUPLE hoping to move into a new home with their young children were scammed out of £1,200 by a fraudster pretending to be a landlord.

Nina Hyuseinov and her husband Hyusein signed a contract on a three-bedroom house to rent so that they could move out of their one-bed flat and be reunited with their two children in a family home in Ferndale Road.

They were shown round the property and then given keys, but it wasn't until they tried to move in that they discovered they had been conned.

Nina said: “I can’t believe this has happened. We saved up this money since we came to the UK in October, the house was really nice and we were looking forward to moving in with our children.

“We wanted to bring them here and give them a better life with more opportunities and help them learn English but now we don’t know what to do, we need help but we have very little money left, the man who did this to us has no heart.

“We have no money, we’re both looking for new jobs and changing our details from the old house to the new one and back again has caused delays with our universal credit payment so we won’t be able to pay the rent for our flat.”

Hyusein’s mother is looking after Asie, three, and Birdzhan, 12, at the moment but has fallen ill and needs to go to hospital due to mobility issues so the Hyuseinovs were going to fly out to Bulgaria tomorrow and bring their children to the UK. Now they have had to cancel their plans.

Their troubles began when a listing on Gumtree caught their eye so they booked a viewing with a man called Raul who said he was a private landlord. After being impressed by what they saw, the couple said they paid him a month’s rent of £800 and half of the £800 deposit in cash, then received a house key.

However, when they packed up tried to move in this week the key no longer fitted the lock and the "landlord" stopped answering their phone calls.

Nina added: “He kept saying there were a lot of people interested in the house and we should pay as soon as possible while the room was still available. We believed him and went straight to the bank to get cash, now all we have to show for it is a very expensive house key.”

The Advertiser has seen documents supporting the couple’s claims, including the signed tenancy agreement, payment receipts, and the property’s online listing which has now been reported and taken off Gumtree.

The house’s real owner Gareth Williams said: “I checked the CCTV and saw that someone had broken in and changed the locks, then within hours he had people over for viewings and was showing them around. I was gobsmacked, I’ve heard of something similar happening in London where rents are higher but never in Swindon, it’s like something you see on TV.

“The house was empty and is in the process of being sold so whoever did this must have known it would be empty and targeted it. This was an organised and elaborate rental scam, though the house is now secure.

“He has given unsuspecting tenants false details, a false tenancy agreement, a false address and a pay-as-you-go number that no longer works. I found out about one victim and then the couple came over the day after. I wonder how many other people will turn up in the next few days expecting to move in. I feel really bad for the people affected and I hope they catch the people responsible, though there’s not much chance of getting the money back because they paid in cash.”

Wiltshire Police said: “We have received a report relating to fraud and have referred it to Action Fraud. Enquiries are ongoing.”

Report fraud to the police on 101 or Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040