mortgage fraud / fraud by false representation

jamesd

ROBBIN_HOOD wrote: »

she was investigated by police for an alleged money laundering offense which never went anywhere after a year of the police investigation. but they did come up with this charge, the solicitor thinks its stupid and may get thrown out at crown court.

I'm just worried what the out come may be for her.

Her best attitude to this may be the standard criminal expectation: do the crime, be willing to do the time. Assuming for this post that she actually did commit the alleged offense, something I don't know.

If she's lucky she may get no custodial sentence at all, though it's socially good that the police are pursuing this to discourage financial criminals, even though it's potentially very bad for her as an individual. If she does get lucky then the do the time attitude may at least provoke relief, which beats going in expecting nothing and then getting a long sentence.

gizmo111 wrote: »

There must be 000's of self cert mortgages where the income was exaggerated, are the mortgage co's investigating them all? I have a freind who completely exagerrated income from about £32,000 to £65,000 but went IO and hasn't missed a payment, I think made some overpayments as well since the rate drop. Are the mortgage cos calling these mortgage in's and making people sell thier houses?

For future information, the FSA regulatory proposals include such things as always requiring proof of income, increased checks throughout the loan for some loan types, including interest only, and possible checks with HMRC for consistency of claimed income with HMRC records. The chance of fraudsters getting caught at an early stage is going to increase substantially.

It's also worth considering this from FSA "CP10_1 Mortgage Market Review: Responsible Lending", July 2010:

"2.27 HMRC ran a pilot scheme last year, where lenders who suspected the income details on a mortgage application were fraudulent were able to check whether the details provided matched information supplied to HMRC (such as tax returns, for example). During the pilot programme, eight of the lenders taking part reported that £111.4 million of mortgage fraud had been prevented. This illustrates the power of income verification in combating financial crime."

It's not a good time to be making fraudulent mortgage applications. Best to make sure that your friend knows the world has changed.

gizmo111

It's not a good time to be making fraudulent mortgage applications. Best to make sure that your friend knows the world has changed.

He's had this mortgage well over 5 years - I didn't think that self cert existed anymore?

jamesd

Not sure it's fully gone but it's on the way out even if some lender is still offering it.

Yorkie1

There are statutory guidelines for sentencing fraud offences.

Pages 23-24 appear to be particularly relevant:

http://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/docs/web_sentencing_for_fraud_statutory_offences.pdf