Alan Muscroft, 33, who had been boasting that he earned £79,000 a year, dishonestly filled out an application with Mortgages PLC to buy Prospect Villa on Main Street, Hemingbrough, saying he had run Alan Muscroft Contractors for ten years.
Hull Crown Court heard that at the time of the scam the car dealer known as “Donny Soldier” was not earning £79,000, but was claiming social security benefits.
Muscroft bought the house near Selby as his family home – but made just one mortgage payment before it was repossessed costing the bank thousands.
He was one of four friends who jointly conned the banks out of £1.6 million using the offices of Anthony Gott, 46, on Main Street, Hook, in Goole.
Crown barrister Nicholas Lane said Muscroft was part of the group headed by Gott, which also included David Hood and his girlfriend Tina Lacy, which took part in mortgage deception. Muscroft actually bought Lacy’s house in Hemingbrough as she moved on to bigger scams.
Muscroft, of Doncaster, pleaded guilty to a charge of fraud by knowingly making a false representation to Mortgage PLC that he earned £79,000 between February and October 2007.
The case became notorious because Hood called himself Del Boy in one of the documents he submitted to Gott to mastermind the joint release of £1,034,017 in house loans. They all fooled banks by claiming they had much-dreamed-of “executive size” pay packets.
Muscroft’s co-accused were all given suspended prison sentences.
Sentencing Judge James Sampson told Muscroft that what he did was “entirely dishonest”.
He passed as six-month sentence, suspended for two years. Muscroft was also ordered to complete 200 hours unpaid work.
