Two men from Kingsbury and Wembley were among six convicted of swindling people trying to sell their holiday homes.

After a two-month trial, Elikham Markham of Harrier Road Kingsbury; Frank Sebestyen of Kings Drive, Wembley; Nuala Bey-el-Araby of Hale Lane, Mill Hill; Gabor Nagyhazi of Park Road, Hendon; Sandor Nagyhazi of Kenerne Drive, Barnet, and John Finder of Longford Court, Hendon, were found guilty of fraud.

The men made more than £1 million out of their scam, which involved asking "clients" for fees of anything up to £320 in exchange for selling their homes.

A jury at Southwark Crown Court heard that more than 2,500 innocent victims were taken in by the silver-tongued salesmen, including a police chief inspector, a surgeon and a nuclear physicist, as well as the elderly and recently bereaved.

The men had been operating from four separate companies: Gladstone Marketing, Premier International Marketing, Eurotime, and Trans-Leisure Direct between 1992 and 1996.

Police made their move after more than 400 calls were received by trading standards officers from outraged clients.

As the complaints began coming in, the companies involved changed their addressees and set up similar companies in their places.

The jury heard that, despite the cash advances paid by the victims, none of the time-shares was sold. And refunds, promised in the "unlikely event" that their homes would remained unsold, were not received.

Jeremy Donne, prosecuting, said: "There were hundreds of customers who lost money, many of them could little afford it."

Judge Mota Singh QC will pass sentence on July 17.

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