Jonathan Barnett, director at All Mortgage Matters initially raised the point, and stated that on an average of every 100 mortgage applications that he processes, as many as six will have some level of suspicion. Barnett said: “There is a lot of fraud going on from my experience. Where I’ve been in contact with another broker I have found that one in five had reason to be wary of the details.”
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The most common areas of mortgage fraud are in the aforementioned self cert applications and with pay slips, but also in areas such as applying for a buy to let mortgage when the applicant had every intention of living in the property and overstating of the income status.
There is an easy solution to the problem according to Barnett, as lenders can supply documentation in a PDF file from the application to both the broker and the client where the details can be clarified. If there is any suspicion on the part of the client with the details they then have the option to transfer to another broker and report the previous adviser to both the FSA and the lender in question.
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Tracy Mullins, director of public affairs at the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries, said: “We at the AMI are striving for professional standards, treating consumers fairly and playing by the rules. We can’t defend the indefensible in this or any other instance.”
