Three former brokers of The Money Centre (TMC), once the UK’s biggest buy-to-let brokerage, have been sentenced to imprisonment for falsifying valuations – where they cut and glued false information onto forms subsequently sent to the lenders.
In total, the lenders, namely HBOS and Bradford & Bingley, had lent out nearly £28 million on mortgages submitted through these false valuations, Thames Valley Police confirmed.
BestAdvice.net reported in September that the brokers had been charged with multiple counts relating to mortgage fraud.
A spokesperson at Aylesbury Crown Court said the three individuals attended a hearing yesterday (13 December). Paul Butcher, of High Wycombe, faced 10 counts of ‘making false representations to make gains for self’. John Stirzaker, of Aylesbury, also faced 10 counts of the same crime, while Lewis Stratford, of High Wycombe, faced five counts of the same charge.
The men pleaded guilty to these charges. Stirzaker was sentenced to three years imprisonment, Stratford two years in prison, and Butcher 18 months in prison.
All three men were also charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud, but pleaded not guilty. These charges were subsequently dropped.
The three mortgage consultants were employed by TMC’s franchisee office, The Money Machine, in High Wycombe. The fraud took place in 2008, at which time TMC placed the majority of its business with HBOS and its subsidiary lenders, mainly BM Solutions. TMC ended its franchisee agreement with the High Wycombe branch when the fraud was uncovered.
Thames Valley Police said in a statement that Stirzaker completed a total of 109 fraudulent mortgage applications, making a minimum of £32,047 commission for personal gain plus bonuses, also gaining title deeds to several properties which were in his wife’s name.
Butcher completed a total of 85 fraudulent mortgage applications. He gained in excess of £11,091 commission for personal gain, plus bonuses, plus title deeds to several properties.
Stratford was involved in all of Butcher’s applications. He was on a basic salary and would have received commission from every mortgage that was completed via the consultant to whom he was working for. He received 10 per cent of all of Butcher’s commission In total the banks have lent out in the region of £27,951,723 on mortgages submitted with false valuations.
Thames Valley Police described the shockingly amateur way in which the fraud was committed. Stirzaker admitted that he changed the online valuations by cutting the correct value out from the valuation, finding the amount needed from a previous valuation form, gluing it into the correct place and then photocopying the form before sending it to the lender with the false information on.
On some occasions by raising the rental amount by as little as £50 a month, this enabled the client to borrow tens of thousands of pounds more than the anticipated value using the correct rental figure.
TMC was terminated from Lloyds Banking Group’s broker panel last December after the bank’s takeover of HBOS.
Det Con Stephanie Burleigh of Thames Valley Police said in a statement: “Since Thames Valley Police have been investigating this crime
