It’s taken the police and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) six years to get to the bottom of this murky saga – a classic example of a single fraudster causing damage to a financial institution on a huge scale.
Ian “Flash” McGarry is the surveyor found guilty in August of conspiring to commit fraud – to the tune of well over £50m. He worked closely with his brother and two other accomplices.
However, McGarry had a special status that was crucial in the gang’s success. As a chartered surveyor, his allocation of a membership number made him a trusted partner in the eyes of lenders.
Of course, £50m didn’t come from one single institution. Cheshire Building Society, Bank of Ireland, Société Générale and the Nationwide Building Society have all suffered losses as a result.
The fact that very little of the money has been successfully recovered is typical, and shows the complexity of frauds that these well-qualified and intelligent criminals are capable of.
Interestingly, McGarry managed to value one particular property three times in a single day. This point seems to counter recent calls for multiple valuations as a solution to such fraud.
If these institutions had shared information on the activity of the one surveyor, there’s a good chance the fraud would have been picked up much earlier.
Cases like this highlight the urgent need for more progress on the development of a national lender and surveyor exchange, where information on transactions and organisations can be viewed in a single location to help capture actions like this.
Silly names aside, the super-villain slipperiness of McGarry and his accomplices just go to show how seriously people need to take the issue of mortgage fraud.
Mark Blackwell is managing director of xit2
