The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is to investigate the role played by solicitors in mortgage fraud.
In an article in today’s Law Society Gazette, the SRA says that over the next 12 months it will seek to profile the involvement of solicitors in the practice and recommend improved prevention, intelligence-gathering and enforcement action.
The project will fast track intelligence for investigation and will consider setting up an alerting system with other agencies the face similar risks.
Since the start of 2009, the SRA has reportedly put more resources into the detection, investigation and prevention of mortgage fraud and has developed greater intelligence-sharing with the police, the Financial Services Authority, the Council of Mortgage Lenders and individual.
It claimed that its investigations have already prevented frauds worth millions pounds.
SRA statistics show reports of suspected mortgage fraud have risen by more than 400% in four years, from 85 instances in 2005 to 350 in 2008.
An SRA spokeswoman stressed that only a “very small proportion” of solicitors were directly involved in mortgage fraud.
