Five per cent of social housing properties in inner city areas could be unlawfully sub-let, with some people making more than £12,000 a year from it, an Audit Commission inquiry has found. Local authorities or housing associations can lose up to £75,000 on a property as a result of sub-letting, which counts as an act
The level of fines levied against individuals for mortgage fraud so far this year has overtaken the number for the whole of 2008. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said in the last 18 months it had stepped up pressure against fraudulent brokers who operated during the boom, with fines totalling £302,445 in the first quarter
The government is extending a hotline in Spain to dob in expat benefit cheats. It says that each year benefit fraud by Britons living abroad costs the UK taxpayers £63 million, and while official do not know how many people are making illegal claims or where they all live, they believe the majority of them
The scale of the mortgage fraud committed during the housing boom has been shown in a report out by KPMG. In 2008, courts dealt with fraud cases worth £36 million, compared with £3.7 million in 2007. Easy credit, and the growth of self-certification mortgages contributed to the high level of fraud, the report argues. However
Meanwhile mortgage fraud has topped £97 million in the first six months of the year, research by accountancy firm BDO Stoy Hayward has found. Twenty-one mortgage fraud cases have already been heard this year, and the Financial Services Authority has warned that it is causing instability in the lending market.
Anthony Weaver is trying to start a private prosecution against the home secretary. He has applied for a summons before a district judge alleging she defrauded the public purse of between £116,000 and £200,000 by claiming her main residence was her sister’s London flat. The judge has adjourned the case and recommended that Mr Weaver
Nine people have been arrested in a £40 million buy-to-let fraud against Bradford & Bingley. All nine are suspected of overvaluing more than 500 properties in the south of England between 2005 and 2007, and are being questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering. Banking insiders say that this is the ‘tip
A Sunday Times investigations has found that members of the royal family have been granted ‘sweetheart’ property deals worth millions. The Crown Estate, which manages £7.3 billion of land and property owned by the crown, allowed several properties to be sold cheaply to Prince Andrew, who subsequently sold them on at substantial profit, while securing