Suspected terrorist given 100% mortgage
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NatWest has come under ctiticism for offering a suspected terrorist a 100% mortgage.
Reports say Albanian Krenar Lusha, 30, was given £93,000 after NatWest failed to complete full checks on his UK status.
He used the cash to buy a house in Derby, where he stored bomb-making equipment and information on how to carry out attacks.
The illegal immigrant also managed to get a UK driving licence, secure a £30,000-a-year engineering job and was even offered a second mortgage - which he declined.
Lusha opened a NatWest bank account in 2000, soon after he sneaked into Britain on the back of a lorry.
Reports in today’s Daily Mail newspaper say when bank staff were asked about its dealings with Lusha, one mortgage advisor told Preston Crown Court: ‘He was just a pleasant natured person and there was nothing untoward.’
Lusha has been jailed for seven years after he was convicted of five out of 10 terror charges following a three-week trial.
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Readers' comments (7)
Anonymous | 17 Dec 2009 10:57 am
I assume now the FSA will make a full investigation into the due dilligence process exercised by the branch advisers and come down with the full weight they do with the intermediary sector?
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Helen | 17 Dec 2009 3:50 pm
I completely agree with the above comment!
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Anonymous | 17 Dec 2009 3:52 pm
If Nat West are not investigated with the same might that a broker would be,it would clearly demonstrate again the uneven playing field brokers are expected to play on compared with the high street lenders.FSA please find a backbone to deal with the big boys not just the small fish in the pool...or it makes us wonder who your real paymasters are????
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Anonymous | 17 Dec 2009 4:28 pm
I have some sympathy with the above comments but there is an unhealthy siege mentaility among some brokers at the moment! It fails to achieve anything!
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Richard | 17 Dec 2009 6:52 pm
I totally agree with the majority of the comments above, NatWest should be fully investigated, and the branch manager and mortgage advisers should be banned by the FSA like any IFA or Mortgage Broker would be.
This might begin to send out a message that these large banking organisations must not just be allowed to operate with impunity like they currently do.
This sort of thing also reminds me of two instances in recent years (HBoS and Lloyds TSB) when I was helping some clients with debt problems, and had very good reason to complain about staff in both banks deliberately ignoring the rules for dealing fairly with debtors, as set out in Office of Fair Trading's Debt Collection Guidance, and the HBoS person arrogantly retorted, "Oh, those rules don't apply to us, we are the Halifax", and a few weeks later in virtually identical circumstances I got almost exactly the same comment from somebody at Lloyds TSB!
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longevity to fsa | 18 Dec 2009 8:10 pm
i can say with certainity the fsa will not take any action against nat west and will also add had it been a broker, the full force of the fsa would be shown. it is always the case 'might is right', whether in financial services or politics.
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Anonymous | 19 Dec 2009 4:18 pm
I agree the FSA should comment forthwith about this case ond outline what their intended actions are likely to be. As previously stated if this had been an Intermediary he/she would be struck off by the FSA.
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