SCAMS

The BBC reports that six people have appeared in court charged with taking part in a £50m mortgage fraud.

The accused, from London, Birmingham and Hertfordshire, include four former solicitors, a surveyor and a property developer. It is alleged several banks and building societies were defrauded in a series of false mortgage applications.

The suspects appeared at Southwark Crown Court charged with conspiracy to obtain a money transfer by deception.

The inquiry by the Serious Fraud Office was launched by West Midlands Police in March 2006 after a complaint from Cheshire Building Society.

The building society said mortgages were secured on six commercial investment properties but not repaid.

All six were released on bail until the next hearing on 1 March.

Those charged are Ian McGarry, 40, from Hertfordshire; Saghir Afzal, 47, Fatema Patwa, 47, Hardeep Sodhi, 33, all Birmingham; Laurence Ferrigan, 48, from Wanstead, east London and Simon Lawrence, 48, from Edgware, north London.

The following article is reproduced, in its entirety, from the BBC website

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) has frozen the assets of a leading republican in South Armagh.

It has been granted a court order to take control of properties and bank accounts belonging to Sean Gerard Hughes of Aghadavoyle Road, Dromintee.

The agency claimed the assets came from laundering the proceeds of mortgage fraud, tax evasion and benefit fraud.

In 2002, Mr Hughes was named in parliament as a member of the IRA’s Army Council, an allegation he denied.

The assets frozen include eight houses in south Armagh, an apartment in south Belfast, the proceeds of the sale of three other houses in south Armagh and a number of bank accounts.