Bank adviser guilty of aiding £700,000 mortgage fraud

A Cheltenham & Gloucester mortgage adviser has admitted to helping two brothers fraudulently obtain mortgages worth £700,000 by ignoring discrepancies on their loan applications.

Manchester Crown Court was told that Anna-Marie Fletcher, an employee at C&G in Farnwoth, Bolton, stood to gain thousands of pounds in bonuses for meeting targets by waving through mortgage applications from Salford brothers Billy Blue Ingham and Bobbie Jo Ingham, according to the Manchester Evening News.

The Inghams both lied about their income on several mortgage applications in 2008 in order to build up a buy-to-let portfolio, with the fraud only uncovered by police in 2010 when investigating another matter.

Fletcher admitted false accounting and was given an eight month suspended sentence earlier this month for her part in the £700,000 fraud.

Both brothers have been jailed for their actions.

Billy Blue Ingham admitted three charges of false accounting and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

His brother Bobbie Jo, who was also found to have fraudulently obtained £15,000 in benefits, admitted four counts of false accounting and two charges of conspiracy to obtain benefits. He was sentenced to 21 months in jail.