Mortgage fraud levels in the UK are on the rise according to officials from police authorities, although the level of mortgage fraud estimated by the police has been disputed by the Council of Mortgage Lenders. According to the Association of Chief Police Officers general fraud is second only to drug trafficking when it comes to the cost the country, and amounts to around £20 billion a year.
Police officials have added that mortgages fraud alone comes to around £700 million a year, and is still rising, but the Council of Mortgage Lenders has disputed this figure. Police officials state the high cost of mortgage fraud comes from a combination of stolen assets, lost revenues, and the cost of investigations and prevention of fraud. Police state that fraud has become a major issue, and that a specialist team is needed to tackle this problem.
The City of London police is now recruiting for a specialist fraud squad, and this team will work across the country and will assist in major fraud investigations, provide training to private and public investigators, and will draw up advice relating to the prevention of fraud. However, authorities also want a specialist mortgage fraud prevention team to be put together to tackle false valuations and false mortgage applications.
According to the Association of Chief Police Officers the mortgage loans fraud industry is a very lucrative one, and has become the target for organised crime. They want officers to receive training on how to identify and tackle mortgage and peronal loans fraud, which is something that the Council of Mortgage Lenders has stated that it would also welcome.
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