The first in an expected long line of senior executives have been arrested as Scotland Yard’s probe into mortgage mis-selling begins to bare fruit.
Ex-Guardian Royal Exchange Personal Financial Management staff Timothy Lloyd-Williams and Paul Gaywood were arrested in February after more than 20 fraud squad officers took part in raids in Beckenham and Fulwood.
They are the first senior managers to be arrested as part of the Yard’s investigation into the ‘dirty tricks’ used to convince innocent would-be homeowners to buy unnecessary or expensive endowment mortgages.
Both men were quizzed over their role in Guardian Royal Exchange during the years 1986 to 1990 when it suffered an £18m loss.
Lloyd-Williams is believed to have retired while Gaywood is working for another firm. It is thought that at the time they were involved in false accounting and destroyed financial records.
Up to 3.5 million UK homeowners have endowment mortgages worth nearly £140bn and compensation could run into billions, possibly becoming the biggest payout since the pensions mis-selling scandal cost the industry £11bn.
