Have I been defrauded by the letting agent?

byrdewear

Hi all,
I'd really appreciate and welcome your thoughts here.

Background:
1. New landlord; property in outer London
2. Contracted an agent to find a tenant last year
3. Prospective tenant was found and holding deposit taken (in May 2019; likely to be prior to 1st June 2019 - exact dates are unknown as the agent is refusing to tell me)
4. Tenancy agreement was not signed as the tenants were found to have given false information (and they were trying to sublet my property through social media even before the tenancy agreement was signed)
5. I rejected the tenants
6. Holding deposit (~500) was never returned to the tenants; the agent admitted not returning to the tenants but is refusing to disclose the amount, date received and of course no money has been returned to me. 
7. I understand that holding deposit is generally taken to cover the administrative expenses of the agent, however, here the amount received far exceeds that and the property was taken off the market for the wrong tenant which caused me financial loss. I also I find that the agent's action, having been appointed by me and the fact that the money was obtained to secure my property, to be fraudulent - is this against the law of agency (making secret profit without the knowledge of the principal and thereby breaching their fiduciary duty to me)?
8. I have, of course, subsequently sacked the agent.

I thought this could be counted as theft but my friend thinks this is fraud and falls under the the Fraud by failing to disclose information and also Fraud by abuse of position:

I looked at the Fraud Act 2006 and it says,

Fraud by failing to disclose information
A person is in breach of this section if he—
(a)dishonestly fails to disclose to another person information which he is under a legal duty to disclose, and
(b)intends, by failing to disclose the information—
(i)to make a gain for himself or another, or
(ii)to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.
Fraud by abuse of position
(1)A person is in breach of this section if he—
(a)occupies a position in which he is expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of another person,
(b)dishonestly abuses that position, and
(c)intends, by means of the abuse of that position—
(i)to make a gain for himself or another, or
(ii)to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.
(2)A person may be regarded as having abused his position even though his conduct consisted of an omission rather than an act.

Also, I wonder if the agent has broke the 'law of agency' by making secret profit from the principal?

Thanks all,
Eve

[Deleted User]

 Don't worry about what law has been breached or criminal offence has been committed just report it to the police and let them figure it out. 

byrdewear

Thanks shel, apparently the police doesn't deal with fraud anymore, it needs to be reported to an organisation called ActionFraud and only selected cases are then investigated

[Deleted User]

Action fraud are the police. You report to them they create a crime log for the police

notrouble

Action Fraud will log it. If and when they receive a large number of such claims against that agent, of sufficiently high value, they may, just may, take action.

You would do far better to either

* refer the matter to the relevant ombudsman to thich the agent has signed up (see below) or

* make a civil claim for your money via moneyclaim online.

Since 1st October 2014, the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 S83 requires letting agents in England to sign up to one of 2 schemes:
* The Property Ombudsman
* Property Redress Scheme