Ex-banker jailed seven years over mortgage fraud consipiracy

A former banker has been sentenced to seven years in jail after conspiring in a £50m mortgages fraud.

Matthew Hinds, 36, was a vice-president of Nomura International.

He and his accomplice, Ganendran Subramaniam, 34, were sentenced after an 11-week trial. Subramaniam received an 11-year term.

Steve Head, of City of London Police, said they were two of the longest sentences for fraud he had known.

Subramaniam made a deposit on the purchase of a shell company called Astrobridge in 2007, and then worked with Hinds at Nomura to attain mortgages “worth tens of millions” of pounds to buy London properties.

Hinds created false documents on Nomura letterhead, lying about Astrobridge’s turnover and saying it was run by a millionaire commodity trader. The letters were then sent to potential lenders.

The owner of Astrobridge was unaware of the activities. Nomura discovered the scheme through a letter from someone who had received a false bank guarantees. The bank conducted an internal investigation and then alerted police.

In a statement, the bank said: “As soon as Nomura discovered Matthew Hinds’ actions in 2007, we alerted the relevant authorities including the police.

“Since then we have fully supported their inquiries. The attempted fraud by Matthew Hinds was in a personal capacity and not related in any way to Nomura’s business.”