Solicitor is arrested in mortgage fraud probe

Nov 6 2009 by Sophie Doughty, The Journal

BRITAIN’S biggest alleged property scam has taken yet another dramatic twist as a solicitor became the latest to be questioned by detectives.

Detectives probing the dealings of North East Property Buyers arrested the woman at her home, in Whickham, Gateshead, yesterday morning.

The 32-year-old, who is a lawyer said to be responsible for handling a large number of the companies’ allegedly fraudulent mortgage applications, has been questioned by officers from Northumbria Police’s Economic Crime Unit, and released on bail.

North East Property Buyers and Newcastle Home Loans became the subjects of a major fraud probe earlier this year after police were alerted by the Financial Service Authority.

Homes and offices connected to the Gateshead-based companies were searched in March and thousands of documents seized.

It is alleged the two firms, which offered people suffering from financial difficulties the chance to stay in their own homes by buying the properties and then renting them back to their former owners, defaulted on mortgages secured on the houses.

Tenants living in some of the 2,000 homes in the company’s portfolio have already been evicted after mortgage lenders repossessed properties in an attempt to claw back the money they are owed.