Mortgage Crooks In £4m Scam

Feb 3 2008 By Norman Silvester And Charles Lavery

Exclusive I.d. Gang Con Lenders Over Flats

A GANG created bogus IDs to carry out a £4million mortage con.

In a complex fraud, they bought 20 flats from Miller Homes for £120,000 each before they were built.

The conmen then "sold" the flats to fictitious customers at £190,000 each - way above market value.

The bogus buyers, who used names such as James Brown, used fake bank details, payslips and identity documents to obtain mortgages.

And after paying Miller the original £120,000 price, the criminals vanished, with the surplus cash.

Lenders only realised they had been robbed after the crooks defaulted on the loans.

Now fraud squad police are hunting the gang behind the scam, which centred on the Parkholme Court development near Hamilton racecourse, Lanarkshire.

Apolice source said: "The gang would need people in positions of responsibility who were prepared to turn a blind eye.

"The most important person would be some unscrupulous surveyor who would exaggerate the value of the flats."

Lenders have paid out loans totalling around £4million for the 20 properties, which they have since repossessed but their market value is around £2.5million.

Genuine buyers in the development have had to pay £100 extra in factor fees because so many flats are lying empty.

One owner said: "The main doors to each block have had to be repaired several times because they have been broken into so often by repossession firms."

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