More arrests have been made in the North-East in relation to what detectives have said could turn out to be Britain’s biggest-ever property scam.
Three former employees of a lettings firm, North East Property Buyers, were questioned and released on bail.
Detectives from the Northumbria Police Economic Crime Unit have so far arrested 12 people in connection with their inquiries, which were prompted by an alert from the Financial Services Authority.
Det Sgt Phil Loveday has warned that police will be speaking to everyone they believed could have played a role in the alleged scam.
Police began probing the dealings of North East Property Buyers and Newcastle Home Loans earlier this year after being alerted by the FSA, which banned Newcastle Home Loans from carrying out regulated mortgage activities. The FSA claimed that the firm had submitted false information in mortgage applications.
Allegations being probed by police are that the firms, which offer people suffering from financial difficulties the chance to stay in their own homes by buying the properties and then renting them back to their former owners, defaulted on mortgages secured on the properties.
Many of the tenants living in some of the 2,000 homes in North East Property Buyers’ portfolio are said to have been evicted after mortgage lenders repossessed their homes.
Comments