Mortgage broker’s fraud to build his £1m dream home

AFORMER award-winning mortgage broker who set out to build a £1m dream home for himself and his family was spared immediate imprisonment after he admitted fraud and false representation.

Marcus Copeland, 44, inflated his income to obtain mortgages to build the house and used the same system to obtain mortgages for some of his clients, Mold Crown Court was told.

Copeland, of Pentywyn Heights, Deganwy, admitted five charges of obtaining a money transfer for clients by deception – getting them mortgages by claiming that they earned more than they did.

He also admitted two charges of fraud involving mortgages for himself – one by falsely claiming his net profit was higher than it was, and another by falsely claiming he had an income of £148,500.

In 2007 Copeland, who ran Copeland Mortgage Services at Prestatyn, was named best mortgage broker in the Midlands and Wales.

He had since lost his business, his reputation, and while he and his wife still live under the same roof they have separated and she had returned to her former job as a specialist nurse.

Defence barrister Jonathan Austin said his client obtained the mortgages for himself to build a dream home for his young family. He said a proposed financial investigation under The Proceeds of Crime would be the final nail in the coffin for him financially. A financial hearing willl be held in January.

The judge, Mrr Recorder Gregg Bull QC, imposing an 18-month prison sentence suspended for two years, said: “That behaviour was thoroughly dishonest, butut I don’t think you realalised how dishonest st was.”

The judge accepted that he was trying to help people desperate to obtain mortgages, but in some applications he provided false wage slips on which financial institutions relied.

The offences came to light in 2012, an investigation took two years to complete and the judge said he accepted that during that

it perio period his health had dete deteriorated – he now su suffered psychological an and physical problem lems.

Mr Austin said his cli client had lost everyth thing. “It affected his re relationship with his wi wife, he has lost his pro profession, and despite ever everything so generously said about him in references before the court he had lost his reputation which was precious to him,” he said.

It was his case that his clients appreciated he was inflating their income. Mr Austin stressed the loss, or even potential loss, had been minimal and all the mortgages had been affordable and the repayments had been met in full.