© Liverpool Echo Thomas Clarke leaves Liverpool Crown Court in August this year.
A gambling addict pretended to be his ex-colleague to earn thousands signing off fraudulent building cladding forms.
Thomas Clarke tried to certify dozens of EWS1 forms meant to show lenders that the cladding on high rise buildings met appropriate standards.
The forms were part of measures brought in to strengthen building regulations after the Grenfell Tower fire but he used them to make money for himself in a desperate bid to pay off gambling debts.
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The 33-year-old dad cried at Liverpool Crown Court today as a judge agreed to suspend his prison term.
Stuart Mills, prosecuting, said Clarke signed at least 55 EWS1 forms certifying that buildings had adequate cladding. The forms, introduced as part of reforms after 72 people were killed in the fire in West London in 2017, are not fire safety forms in and of themselves but instead provide assurances to mortgage lenders and other financial stakeholders that a building is free of dangerous cladding.
They require a surveyor with appropriate training and qualifications to sign them. Clarke, originally from Prescot, did not have the proper training but began signing forms for a company called Specialist Facade Inspections in 2020. After his ability to sign the forms was questioned, he then said he would get a former colleague, Sophie Magee, to sign them herself.
Yet Ms Magee knew nothing about this and Clarke, who had some training as a surveyor but was not qualified, began to impersonate her when completing the forms, forging her signature and using her Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) identification number.
She only found out when she began to receive calls from numerous people querying the forms – and later found herself at the centre of an investigation into their creation. She reported the fraud herself and also managed to find Clarke’s name on some of the documents. When she told him, he said he too was a victim of fraud and would report it to the police.
Yet he avoided questions from investigators from RICS and even produced emails purporting to be from Ms Magee suggesting she agreed to sign the forms. He eventually admitted writing the emails himself and accepted he had impersonated her.
He pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation last month, though having initially been charged with signing 88 forms fraudulently that was reduced to 55 forms. In a statement to the court, Ms Magee said the incident had caused her significant stress after she found her own integrity questioned.
She has almost two decades of experience in her industry and said she had worked hard to ensure clients knew she could be relied on to act ethically, something that was put at risk by Clarke’s actions.
The exact amount Clarke earned as part of the scheme is not clear but was said to be in the region of £6,500. Prosecutors said they believed he was paid around £200 per form but Clarke said the amount earned was frequently below that.
Michael O’Brien, defending, said Clark was driven by desperation over his gambling debts and said he was ashamed of his behaviour. He said: “He was in a hole and he made the wrong decision at each and every turn. He makes no excuse for his behaviour because of course there isn’t one.”
However, Mr O’Brien added that there was no assertion from either the prosecution or the defence that the safety of residents living in high rise blocks had ever been compromised. He said: “There has been a misconception in this case previously. It is agreed that the defendant never assessed a property as compliant when it was not.”
Mr O’Brien appealed to the judge, Recorder Andrew McLoughlin, to suspend Clarke’s jail term, saying that while Clarke’s actions were dishonest, no buildings were incorrectly certified as a result of his actions.
The judge, Recorder Andrew McLoughlin, said he accepted the forms were not used to judge safety in and of themselves but said their certification was likely to give residents an extra level of belief that they were safe from a potential fire.
He said Clarke’s criminal activity had a significant impact on Ms Magee and granted a restraining order preventing him from contacting her for five years.
Addressing Clarke, he said: “You involved a completely innocent member of the public – a former colleague. How you came to choose her nobody knows. You personal information about her to use her details to continue your fraudulent activity when someone had checked and found out you did not have adequate qualifications.”
Recorder McLoughlin also said he had significant concerns about the way Specialist Facade Inspections, the company Clarke worked with, had conducted its business – but noted the company and its director, Joshua Tedstone, was not before the court themselves and had not been charged with any offence.
Clarke, now of Second Avenue, Rainhill, was handed a 15 month jail term suspended for two years. He was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £1500.
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