Former Apprentice star escapes jail after mortgage fr...

31 January 2011

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Written by rosalind renshaw

Former ‘Apprentice’ contestant and mortgage broker Christopher Farrell has escaped jail after pleading guilty to four charges of mortgage fraud.

Farrell, 29, received a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, for doctoring applications in order to hit sales targets He must also do 200 hours of community service.

Farrell worked as a mortgage and insurance adviser with Mortgages for Plymouth between November 2007 and August 2009.

He had altered payslips or P60 forms during his time there to inflate the earnings of his clients to ensure their mortgages would be approved.

In one instance, he inflated a client’s salary from £40,000 a year to £120,000.

His clients were unaware of the fraud taking place.

He pleaded guilty at Plymouth magistrates court in December, and has now been sentenced at Plymouth Crown Court.

Comments

- J@Local Pi
This type of fraud is becoming more prevalent with the recession taking hold of us. People are feeling more fearful of losing their jobs and desperate to compete with their peers to meet their targets. The rise in this type of fraud is a natural result of mortgage lenders having to tighten up their process. Mortgage lenders have a moral obligation to provide their clients and their employers with accurate information, and this is a terrible betrayal of trust. We provide a service to combat this type of fraud, are able to run identity checks in every city in the UK. Some of our investigations even go abroad....
www.localpi.co.uk
- 31 January 2011 10:08 AM