Builder/Developer Jailed for fake "Building Control Approvals
John_Stephen Bone
Registered Building Inspector (RBI) Chartered Building Engineer (C.Build.E MCABE, BSc Hons)
George King - BBC News, Suffolk
Reporting from Ipswich Crown Court
Published 2 October 2024, 06:18 BST
A property developer who put "lives at risk" by falsifying building work documents and selling "unsafe" flats has been jailed.
Wayne Murfet, director of Lors Homes, supplied 36 fake?building control completion certificates,?for flats on a complex called The Grosvenor, in High Street, Newmarket, Ipswich Crown Court heard.
The flats were inspected by?West Suffolk Building Control,?external?and found to be in breach of building regulations, while concerns relating to fire safety were also raised.
Stefanie Seaton, who bought a flat, told the court she "felt powerless, vulnerable and kept in the dark."
Recorder Emma Nash sentenced Wayne Murfet, 41, of Freckenham Road,?Chippenham, Ely, to three and a half years in prison - and disqualified him from being a director of a company for seven years.
Murfet was charged with multiple counts of fraud by dishonesty and intending to make a gain by failing to disclose information he was under a legal duty to disclose - and making or supplying an article for fraud.