Man who posed as legal adviser jailed after trading standards prosecution

A Biggleswade man who made more than £5,000 after advertising his services as a professional McKenzie friend has been jailed for three years after being found guilty of multiple trading standards and housing benefits offences.

Martin Williamson, 36 of Winston Crescent, Biggleswade, was prosecuted following an investigation by Central Bedfordshire Council, assisted by the Scam Busters team.

The defendant had advertised his services as a McKenzie Friend on the internet, offering help in cases involving children or grandchildren. His victims paid a fee up front.

According to Central Bedfordshire, Williamson would then claim to have worked on their case by applying for court orders, arranging court dates, contacting former partners and their legal firms and liaising with social services and the Child Support Agency, when he had not.

The council said the McKenzie Friend offences took place between December 2012 and April 2014. It added that having been arrested and interviewed in August 2013 about the initial allegations, the defendant continued offending after being released on bail.

The local authority said Williamson’s actions included:

• producing a fake court order which he told the victim would prevent a relative taking the child out of school;
• faking a CRB check after a victim paid for a relative’s background to be investigated;
• creating a fake child psychologist in order to extort payments from another victim; and
• falsifying court dates meaning that when the victims arrived at court they found the hearings did not exist.

Central Bedfordshire also conducted a benefit investigation and established that the defendant had not declared three different jobs and therefore received £3,517.48 of benefits to which he was not entitled.

At Luton Crown Court on 13 March 2015 Williamson pleaded guilty to 15 trading standards offences relating to family law.

On 15 May 2015 he also pleaded guilty to one count involving fraudulent sale of a laptop and six counts of benefit fraud.

The defendant was jailed this week for a total of three years for the family law counts, with no separate penalty for the laptop count, and one month behind bars for each of the benefit fraud offences, to run concurrently with the main prison term.

Sentencing Williamson, His Honour Judge Stuart Bridge said: “Your actions were callous and premeditated. You attracted people who were unable to obtain legal support due to cuts in legal aid. You deliberately sought these people out. Once you had been paid you broke their trust.

“You abused a position of trust. The offences were sophisticated and carefully planned. You prepared and falsified documents.

“The loss of over £5,000 was relatively low, but the high victim impact elevates this to a higher sentencing bracket. There is no doubt in my mind that the McKenzie Friend offences are so serious that an immediate custodial sentence must be imposed.”

Cllr Brian Spurr, Executive Member for Community Services at Central Bedfordshire, said: “Williamson’s actions had a devastating impact on their victims at an already highly stressful and emotional time, and ran the risk of jeopardising their legal cases.

“The lengthy prison sentence is an excellent result at the end of what has been a long investigation, and is a testament to the Trading Standards and Revenues and Benefits teams here.”