Parents Testify Against Son Accused & Subsequently Convicted Of Using Forged Documents To Refinance Family Home, Pocketing £55,000

In Gloucestershire, UK, the Daily Mail reports:

• A couple were horrified to discover that their son had remortgaged their home to raise £55,000 which he spent on luxury living, a court was told. Darrell Keen, 26, forged his father's signature to remortgage the family home in the Cotswolds - then blew the surplus cash in four months on restaurants and clothes. Keen did not turn up for his trial at Gloucester Crown Court, but his parents Graham and Rachel Keen were both there to give evidence against him and he was convicted in his absence. Judge Martin Picton issued a warrant for the callous fraudster's arrest and said he would pass sentence on him on June 1st whether he has been found by then or not.

• The jury of seven men and five women had taken just 25 minutes to convict Keen of forging the morgtage application and using a false instrument with intent. Prosecutor Lisa Hennessy said Keen was living with his parents and a lodger in Field Lane, Willersey, Gloucestershire. Darrell switched his father's mortgage from the Kensington Mortgage company to GE Money, raising an extra £55,000 in the process. In June last year, Mr Keen started to realise what had happened when he got a letter from the new mortgage company stating that the repayments were not being made. The next day he was shocked to receive a notice of summons to attend court about the arrears.

For more, see Son secretly remortgaged parents' house to splurge £55,000 on a flat, car, clothes and restaurants.