Introducer Today

Legal eagles caught in mortgage fraud swoops

You know we are living in interesting times when you read that over 100 law firms were investigated for mortgage fraud in 2009.

The mortgage intermediary industry is hardly blameless in this department either. The FSA reportedly banned yet another fraudulent London broker yesterday - I’d like to think it’s a numbers game rather than the effect the capital has on your ethics – but there was a perverse pleasure in reporting the fact 22 solicitors firms were shut down for property fraud by regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in 2009.

[Click here to read the news story]

To be honest, I was mildly shocked. The fact that the SRA followed up the announcement by warning solicitors to walk away and refuse to act if a deal smells bad was even odder. Isn’t that a bit, well, self-evident for a profession that purports to uphold the law? At least the FSA hasn’t issued warnings to brokers yet suggesting that if they feel an urge to lie about their income to get an inflated mortgage perhaps they should think again.

But the SRA confirmed that the last recession brought a similar “tsunami” of mortgage fraud reports from whistleblowers dobbing in corrupt solicitors.

While more often caused by “incompetence” than dishonesty, ...More