Three former brokers of The Money Centre (TMC), once the UK’s biggest buy-to-let brokerage, have been charged with nearly 30 counts relating to mortgage fraud.
The three mortgage consultants were employed by TMC’s franchisee office in High Wycombe. It is alleged that the fraud, supposedly involving falsification of buy-to-let valuations, took place in 2008, at which time TMC placed the majority of its business with HBOS and its subsidiary lenders, mainly BM Solutions.
TMC was terminated from Lloyds Banking Group’s broker panel last December after the bank’s takeover of HBOS.
TMC ended its contract with the High Wycombe branch in October 2008 after the alleged fraud was detected, and the branch was closed down soon after.
Mark Alexander, CEO of TMC, which now offers specialist financial services to landlords, said he could not comment further on the case.
The three brokers face multiple individual counts to defraud. A spokesperson at Aylesbury Crown Court said Paul Butcher, of High Wycombe, faces 10 counts of ‘making false representations to make gains for self’. John Stirzaker, of Aylesbury, also faces 10 counts of the same offence, while Lewis Stratford, of High Wycombe, faces five counts of the same charge. All three men are also charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud.
The men were due to attend a hearing at Aylesbury Crown Court last Friday (24 September), but the court said this will now be rescheduled as one of the defendants could not attend. When the hearing takes place, the men will enter their pleas and a date for a full trial will be set.
Alexander said Lloyds gave no explanation as to why it would no longer accept business from TMC, other than it was related to ‘quality of business’ and ‘transparency of transactions’. Alexander said TMC had not encountered any other irregularities before or since the High Wycombe incident.
Emma Partridge, media relations manager at Lloyds Banking Group, said it will continue to co-operate throughout the investigation.
