Surveyor jailed for 6 years for £10m mortgage fraud

A senior surveyor who took gifts worth £1m for her part in a £10m mortgage scam for London properties has been jailed for six years.

Mary-Jane Rathie, who worked with surveying firm Ashdown Lyons, was jailed yesterday after being found guilty of inflating valuations of properties in some of the capital’s most exclusive areas.

In an exclusive last week, Mortgage Solutions editor Victoria Hartley spoke with ex-managing director of Ashdown Lyons, Robin Johnson, one of four witnesses from the firm asked to testify for the prosecution.

Last month, Rathie was convicted of five counts of fraud and concealing criminal property, while her husband had been cleared of a charge of concealing criminal property at the Old Bailey trail.

Judge Timothy Pontius told Rathie it was a "tragedy" that someone with her work record was in the dock.

He added: “There is no doubt that your fall from grace is a heavy one.”

David Durose, prosecuting, told the court that the surveyor provided "dishonestly-inflated" valuations for a woman, who used them to secure mortgages from the Bank of Scotland between May 2007 and June 2009.

Durose said the client obtained more than £10m of loans, £9.5m of which relied on valuations by Rathie.

The offences relate to a riverside property in Chelsea; a flat in Belgravia, near Sloane Square and another at Chester Mews behind Buckingham Palace, the jury heard.

A fourth property was in the Docklands, east London, and a fifth in Pimlico, central London.

The court was told that the client, Joanne Pier, has left the country and cannot be found.