The defendant, in this case, was a qualified Certified Accountant. She was originally arrested and interviewed for conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud totalling sums going into millions of pounds.

In due course, she was charged with conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud of an overall sum totalling £1m.

It was alleged that a company operated by her and her husband was involved in purchasing a number of properties from an investor. It was alleged that the mortgages obtained to fund those purchases were obtained fraudulently because an inflated sum was applied for and the monies were misapplied to other properties once obtained. It was the Prosecution’s case that once bought the properties would be sold within a very short period of time at prices significantly less than the value of the mortgage. The additional sums would then be misapplied to other properties and so the fraudulent transactions continued.

This was a very serious charge and if the defendant had been convicted she would have been at risk of a jail term. Also, the confiscation proceedings could have been devastating.

However, after careful negotiations with the prosecution and continued representations to them, Ashmans Solicitors were able to ensure that the case against the defendant was discontinued.