A Welsh landlord who accumulated a huge residential portfolio by filling in fraudulent mortgage applications has been imprisoned and fined more than £4m.
Last week, Port Talbot-based investor David Dale pleaded guilty at Swansea Crown Court to 29 charges under the Theft Act, and asked for 28 more charges to be taken into account.
The charges relate to 57 houses that he bought using false information.
On Friday, Judge Michael Burr confiscated £4.2m from the former estate agent and imposed a two-year jail sentence.
Dale, of Beverley Gardens, Bryncoch, was once regarded as one of Wales’ richest men, and is still valued at £15m.
His Port Talbot empire, comprising around 450 properties, is now controlled by a receiver in London, although a separate portfolio in Spain is unaffected by the proceedings.
According to his lawyer, Christopher Vosper, Dale began making false mortgage applications after he was forced into bankruptcy during a property crash in the early 1990s.
To avoid arousing suspicion, he recruited friends and family, including his wife and three children, to fill in bogus forms.
The named applicants were typically allowed to keep £1,000 “cashback” incentive schemes paid out by the building societies.
When the mortgages were approved, Dale would cheaply renovate the houses and lease them out, often at below-market rents to people on benefits.
From 1997, he began to build his portfolio legitimately by applying for buy-to-let mortgages.
In seeking a suspended prison sentence, Vosper claimed that Dale’s crimes had been victimless offences that had even benefited the greater community.
He argued: “He had renovated a lot of houses, so that the housing stock in the Port Talbot area has improved.
“They were let out, and not at market rent but at whatever tenants could afford.
“It is a paradox no-one has lost, but quite a lot of people have benefited, from his criminal conduct.”
However, Judge Michael Burr said that the “seriousness” of the crime, from the scale of the operation to the fact that Dale had involved others in the scheme, warranted imprisonment.
He acknowledged that Dale had kept up with mortgage payments, but said: “People who fill in mortgage applications should do so honestly.”
A group of 11 friends and family who also admitted mortgage fraud were sentenced to community service or given substantial fines at the start of the hearing last week.
References: EGi News 05/12/05
