Four jailed in £3.5m mortgage fraud case

Four people have been jailed and another three given suspended sentences after a £3.5m mortgage fraud.

Property developers Marshall Joseph, 56, from Altrincham and Alick Kapikanya, 45, from Greater Manchester, shared loans they fraudulently obtained on houses they did not own.

Kapikanya was jailed for six and Joseph for four years at Manchester Crown Court.

The fraud involved properties in Salford, Cheshire and Lincolnshire.

Ben Southam, Senior Crown Prosecutor said: "When the defendants were arrested they had succeeded in defrauding various financial institutions of £3.5m, and had attempted to raise a further £3.3m."

'Considerable distress'

Bruce Robertson, 49, and Irene Perciful, 48, from Duxford were jailed for 30 months and 12 months for their part in the fraud.

Peter Tanner, 54, from Pampisford, Cambridgeshire, Myra Trigg, 57, from Manchester and Christopher Campbell, 31, from Barnstead, Surrey, were given suspended sentences.

Trigg, Perciful and Tanner posed as legitimate home owners, and Campbell, who worked at a solicitors, deliberately misled lenders about the true owners of the properties, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

Mr Southam said: "The mortgages and loans were obtained against houses they did not own, and without the knowledge of the real homeowners."

The true owners "knew nothing about the loans" and were caused "considerable distress and inconvenience", he added.