A former letting agent and TV reality star has been jailed for 30 months after tricking other agents into giving him keys to properties for fake viewings, and then stealing items while the tenants were at work.
Ben Papantoniou (pictured, right), who until March ran the Notting Hill branch of London agent Benham & Reeves Lettings, appeared in the 2010 TV reality show Seven Days.
The show documented 18 people in Notting Hill during eight episodes and in Ben’s case followed him as he chased lettings leads and women around the area.
On his LinkedIn profile Ben also claims to be a shareholder in Purplebricks, have his own lettings company – which is registered with Companies House but dissolved in January this year – and that he also worked at several high profile London letting agents.
Letting agent
After Ben left Benham & Reeves Lettings in March this year he continued to pose as an employee and tricked staff at nearby branches of Knight Frank, Chestertons, Foxtons and KFH to give him keys to rental properties.
Local paper the Ham & High reports that he then went on a month-long crime spree, burgling four properties in and around Notting Hill from June 9th onwards, taking currency worth £3,000 and dozens of personal items including jewellery and a watch.
“We keep a tight control of our keys,” Vidhur Mehra of Benham & Reeves Residential Lettings told the paper.
“Our understanding is that Ben fraudulently posed as an employee of Benham & Reeves Residential Lettings sometime after he had left our company.”
It is also reported that Foxtons has subsequently compensated the tenants involved in their property.
“We’ve reviewed our security procedures as a result of this isolated incident and re-affirmed the importance of extra vigilance to our front office staff,” a spokesperson said.
Similar statements were also made by spokespeople from Chestertons and KFH. Knight Frank declined to comment.
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