Broker conned bank to fund £1m eco house
He now faces jail for lying on his mortgage application
A TOP mortgage broker who bragged that he ‘ spared no expense’ to build his dream home is facing jail after conning a bank into giving him the money for it.
Marcus Copeland, 44, splashed out almost £1million to complete the sixbedroomed eco house.
He sourced specialist Scottish stone and installed the latest environmentally friendly technologies to make the house in Cwm Dyserth, near St Asaph, North Wales, one of the most ‘green’ new builds in the country.
But yesterday it emerged that the married father- of- two’s dream had become a nightmare, after he admitted lying on mortgage forms to secure more than £800,000 for the property.
At Caernarfon Crown Court the former journalist, who was once named best mortgage broker in the Midlands and Wales, admitted two counts of fraud by lying to Abbey National about the profitability of his business to secure the £847,000 loan in March 2007.
At an earlier hearing, he also pleaded guilty to five charges of deception after he used his position to inflate the salaries of five of his clients and help them obtain mortgages totalling £686,000.
Jonathan Austin, defending, said Copeland maintained that all the customers knew he had boosted their wages when making the applications. The barrister added that none of the loans had ever been defaulted upon. ‘All these mortgages proved to be affordable,’ the barrister said. ‘The obligations were met.’ Recorder Gregory Bull QC bailed Copeland, of Deganwy, Llandudno, for sentencing later this year. But he went on to warn him: ‘You are not to read anything into the likely sentence. Imprisonment remains an option.’ In November 2010 Copeland’s home was featured in an article for Homebuilding and Renovating magazine and described as the ‘quintessential self-build story – huge ambition matched by a hopelessly stretched budget, spiralling costs and immense stress.’
He and his wife Yvonne, 44, spent a year trying to persuade a farmer to sell them an elevated plot of land in the picturesque village in Denbighshire for £250,000, before spending another £ 750,000 on the build. Spread out over three storeys, the house features two double garages, a home office, an open-plan kitchen, a dining and sitting area, a TV room terrace and a roof garden, all cut into a hillside overlooking the rolling Welsh countryside.
Talking about the project, Copeland told the magazine: ‘If I was to do it again, I’d control my spending. I fell in love with a stone from Scotland that I wanted for the exterior walls.
‘It cost a fortune and I’m not sure you can tell the difference com- pared with cheaper options. But this was our dream home, so I spared no expense.’
The couple sold the house in September 2012 for £925,000 but, following Copeland’s guilty plea, are now facing having to pay back any profit they have made via the Proceeds of Crime Act.
The defendant ran Copeland Mortgage Services in Prestatyn, Denbighshire, and was named Best Mortgage Broker in the Midlands and Wales at the Pink Home Services Awards Night in 2007.