‘Greedy financial advisers in £4m mortgage loan scam
A GROUP of financial advisors who were “motivated by greed” and secured £4m of loans on the back of fraudulent mortgage applications have been jailed.
A total of seven defendants were sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday and yesterday for their part in a dishonest criminal enterprise which used fraudulent mortgage applications to defraud lenders to the true financial circumstances of the application.
Between June 1, 2009, and September 1, 2013, Peter Gay and Robert Maxwell ran the operation and were joined by Kenneth Bacon, 66, who supplied false accountancy documents required for the applications.
Gay, 64, who worked as business development officer at Abbey National in Neath, provided false payslips and Maxwell, 70, a director of Newportbased LRP Mortgages who worked as a financial advisor for Aspect Financial Services, processed the applications.
Malcolm Pow, 47, who has a background in financial services, took advantage of the dishonest enterprise to process applications made by his clients using false documentation.
Michael Bishop, 39, used Gay to fraudulently obtain documents in an application to Yorkshire Building Society. In that application he used false documents to inflate his business profit figures to make his business more attractive.
Another defendant Supriya Misra used their services to process applications for his clients while Omer Mian, 45, provided false employer references if required. Between the defendants, more than 80 fraudulent applications were made, half of which were unsuccessful, with loans of £4m granted and loans of £5m not successfully obtained.
Prosecutor Jonathan Rees said: “The scale of the offending motivated by their own greed is overwhelming.”
Illustrating how the enterprise worked in practice, Mr Rees added: “In December 2001, Mr Gay emailed Mr Maxwell about a client. He said ‘This is the application we spoke about and it needs a couple of important changes, I’m not sure what to do about employment, he works for the company mentioned, a restaurant chain in London. However, he would need £70,000 plus to afford the loan. We could put him in as a director of the company and see if it works, let me know what you think.’
“Mr Maxwell replied ‘I have shown him as a director of the company with a salary of £75,000. I’m at home now so can’t print off the certificate. It asks for two years worth of accounts or latest payslips.’”
Among the false documents used by the court were false proof of income documents, false payslips, false accountancy certificates, false references, false business accounts, and false references from employers and employees.
Concerns were raised after Maxwell’s employer was contacted by Santander over issues with a number of applications.
He was arrested in January 2013 and searches were made of his home and offices where documentation was found in relation to applications for Gay and he had forwarded a number of documents to Bacon, relating to proof of income documents.
Gay, of Ffordd Morgannwg, Whitchurch, Cardiff, was sentenced to a total of three years and nine months imprisonment.
Maxwell, of Richmond Road, Six Bells, Abertillery, was jailed for five years and six months.
Bacon, of Llandissilio to Glandy Cross, Efailwen, Carmarthenshire, was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
Pow, of Heol Tonwy, Caldicot, was sentenced to 26 months imprisonment.
Bishop, formally of Cardiff but now of Tan Quee Lan Street, Singapore, was jailed for four years.
Misra, of Cwrt Coed y Brenin, Church Village, Rhondda Cynon Taff, was sentenced to 33 months imprisonment.
Mian, of Conway Road, Newport, was jailed for two years and five months.