Brothers and their mortgage adviser sentenced after fraud

Friday 27th January 2012

Three people involved in a buy-to-let scam, including a mortgage adviser chasing targets, have been sentenced.

Brothers Billy Blue Ingham and Bobbie Jo Ingham obtained loans for £700,000 in order to buy properties in Salford, Greater Manchester.

Their dodgy mortgage applications, in which they lied about their lifestyles, were ‘waved through’ by Anna-Marie Fletcher at the Cheltenham & Gloucester in Farnworth, Bolton.

Manchester Crown Court was told she stood to gain thousands in bonuses if she met targets.

Philip Curran, prosecuting, said that in 2008, Billy Blue Ingham, a 31-year-old roofer, lied about his income to borrow money to buy his partner’s house.  

He was able to borrow more than it was actually worth and a month later went back to the Cheltenham & Gloucester to apply for a mortgage to buy the house next door, without disclosing the previous loan he had obtained from the society.

Shortly after, his brother, Bobbie Jo Ingham, 32, a factory worker, began buying buy-to-let investments – with Fletcher turning a blind eye to discrepancies in his applications.

He bought three properties before the brothers joined forces, applying for two more mortgages.

The brothers’ frauds were discovered by police in 2010.

In court, Billy Blue Ingham admitted three charges of false accounting and was sent down for 18 months. Bobbie Jo Ingham admitted four counts of false accounting and two charges of conspiracy to obtain benefits and was jailed for 21 months.

Fletcher, 33, admitted false accounting and was given a suspended sentence of eight months.