Couple jailed in UK’s longest trial

A husband and wife have been sent to prison for property fraud totalling £1.6 million in the longest criminal trial in UK legal history. Edwin McLaren, 52, was convicted last month following a trial that started on September 14, 2015 at the High Court in Glasgow, and heard 320 days of evidence. The trial is thought to have cost around £7.5 million, with more than £2.4 million in legal aid paid for defence lawyers. McLaren, from Quarriers Village in Inverclyde, was found guilty of 29 charges and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. His wife Lorraine was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for mortgage fraud and money laundering. The case was described by Police Scotland as one of the largest and most complicated property fraud investigations ever carried out. It went on for so long that the jury was reduced from 15 to 12 – the lowest number a Scottish criminal trial can operate with. And the court had to halt for three weeks after one juror got married, and others were off sick or took holidays. Edwin McLaren was described as the “brains behind the scheme”, which saw the couple steal around £1.6 million. It involved targeting people under financial pressure by posting adverts in national newspapers, and telling them he would solve their money problems, usually in the form of a loan or leaseback agreement. However, McLaren would deceive them into signing paperwork which transferred full ownership of their property to him. Some victims said they were not only in financial difficulty, but were also unwell or bereaved, including one homeowner who was so weakened by his cancer treatment he did not know what he was signing. Meanwhile, McLaren enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle as he bought four cars including a Bentley, and went on holidays to Dubai. Lorraine McLaren told the court it was her husband who ran the fraudulent side of their property business and that she only signed the documents when he asked her to. The frauds, which took place between April 2008 and November 2012, came to the attention of Police Scotland after a woman in Fife claimed she was not paid the full amount that she was promised for her house in Cowdenbeath. Over the course of two years, 48 properties were investigated, 29 of which made it on to the indictment in court. Sentencing the McLarens, Judge Lord Stewart said: “Vulnerable individuals were taken advantage of. The evidence showed breathtaking dishonesty in every aspect of your enterprise by you and those acting on your instructions. “The jury found you to be an outright liar. “