£6M scam puts spotlight on flaws in lenders' fraud detection systems
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Weaknesses in lenders’ fraud det-ection systems were highlighted again last week, after a gang’s £6m scam was revealed.
Southwark Crown Court heard how Ruth Ayinde-Azeez, Isaac Matthews, David Hunter and Jason Mercer carried out the lucrative fraud by providing false mortgage applications for properties across the UK and using the loans to fund luxurious lifestyles.
All four have been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison, with another gang member, Anthonia Akinyele, awaiting sentencing.
The Metropolitan Police’s fraud department launched the investi-gation in 2007 with assistance from Hertfordshire Constabulary. It found that Ayinde-Azeez received £1.5m in loans, which she sent to associates in Dubai.
She also owned a 20% share in a brokerage that played a significant role in the fraud.
The brokerage, M Solutions and Financial, based in Finchley, north London, passed false mortgage applications to a solicitor firm. Once a mortgage was approved by a lender, the money would be sent to the solicitor’s client account and then to two business accounts con-trolled by Akinyele and Matthews.
Their businesses, Isaac and Isaacs and Zikkito, have been dissol-ved and financial enquiries re-vealed that over 6m went through them during the six-week fraud. The Metropolitan Police will not reveal which lenders were duped.
Detective Constable Terry Lam-bert from the Met’s Economic and Specialist Crime Command, says: “This was a meticulously planned fraud with involvement from a num-ber of criminals using seemingly legitimate businesses to launder huge amounts of money in a short space of time.”
Mortgage Strategy revealed in last week’s issue that the Financial Services Authority plans to visit lenders in the next couple of month to check that their systems are robust enough to detect fraud.
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