Solicitors charged for £50m mortgage fraud

Two solicitors have appeared at City of London Magistrates Court after being charged with offences in connection with a series of various commercial mortgage frauds.

Mark Knights of Cheshire and Kamran Malik of Birmingham are charged with three counts of obtaining a money transfer by deception contrary to section 15A Theft Act 1968. The proceedings are to be transferred to Southwark Crown Court.

At the time of the fraud, Mark Knights was employed at Mace & Jones Solicitors in Manchester and Kamran Malik was a partner in A&H Solicitors in Birmingham.

These proceedings relate to the same investigation where six individuals were charged with in connection with the same offences in December 2009.

It is alleged the frauds involved dishonestly obtaining loans from banks or building societies which were secured on six commercial investment properties.

Each property was transferred between companies controlled by one of the defendants and his associates at highly inflated prices in a series of transactions.

On the basis of the grossly inflated prices, fraudulent valuations and forged leases, the defendants applied for and obtained mortgage advances totalling nearly £50m. The mortgages were quickly defaulted on and the lenders involved suffered significant losses.