Lauren Lesley Hall in Maroochydore court for fraud
An ex-property manager and mum has been banned from working in real estate for a second time after a court was told of how she faked her way into a job without a licence.
Police & Courts
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A court has heard how a Buderim mother faked her way into a property manager role using someone else’s property licence registration after being convicted of fraud.
Lauren Lesley Hall, 39, pleaded guilty at Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Thursday, August 17, to acting as a real estate salesperson without a certificate and two counts of providing a document with false information.
The court was told Hall used the registration of a woman with the same first and last name to get a job in property management, after she lost her own certificate and was banned from reapplying for five years due to a fraud conviction in 2016.
Hall asked the Office of Fair Trading for it to be reinstated in August 2019 after she became a senior property manager, the court was told.
She claimed she was falsely convicted and asked for a review, which was declined. She was then told she could reapply in 2021, after the five year period.
However in May, 2021, before her ban was over, she was hired as a senior property manager at a different firm where she required a current real estate registration.
In July she asked the Office of Fair Trading for a licence extract for a Lauren Hall who worked in North Queensland, and despite having a different middle name, Hall was sent the document.
The court was told that Hall requested a replacement registration certificate for the North Queensland Lauren Hall - which was granted.
But following an anonymous tip-off about unlicensed workers, Office of Fair Trading investigators visited Hall’s workplace and found an expired registration in Hall’s file.
While the investigators were still at the firm she applied for it to be renewed and showed them a receipt to show it was now up to date.
Hall later confessed to the fraud during an interview with Office of Fair Trading inspectors but claimed she did not realise the registration belonged to someone else.
Lawyer Jacob Pruden told the court his client had applied for a new registration three times, but was knocked back.
She was struggling emotionally at the time of the offences, he said, but threw herself into work to cope despite being “burnt out”.
He said Hall was not “thinking clearly” at the time and had since left the real estate industry voluntarily and did not plan on returning.
A letter of apology written by Hall and expressing her remorse, Mr Pruden said, was tendered to the court as well as character references.
Hall was fined $8000 and disqualified from getting a real estate licence for five years.
Convictions were recorded.
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