Buy to Let Mortgage Fraudsters Jailed

Buy to Let Mortgage Fraudsters Jailed

16:31 PM, 19th January 2012, About 12 years ago

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A property developer and lawyer are starting jail sentences after admitting a series of buy to let frauds.

Legal executive David Kitching and developer Franco Campagna hatched a plan to scam cash from buy to let mortgage lenders when Campagna’s property development company ran in to trouble when the property market collapsed.

Campagna told Lancashire Mortgage Corporation, a bridging firm, that the loans he requested were for clients buying rental investments.

Kitching handled the conveyancing and handed over false title certificates to persuade the lender to release the loans – which Campagna switched to pay off debts on his own properties.

Later, they also conned funds out of other lenders.

A judge at Leeds Crown Court hear the switched funds totalled £537,655 and have not been traced.
Campagna, of Barnsley, and Kitching 64, of Leeds, both admitted eight charges of fraud.

Campagna was jailed for two years and four months, while Kitching was sentenced to 12 months in prison.

The fraud was discovered when one lender wrote to Kitching’s bosses about discrepancies in their files. The firm now faces legal claims of around £700,000 while the Lancashire Mortgage Corporation is trying to sell a number of repossessed homes.

Company to Pay £6,000 over Neglected Rental Homes

Sandwell magistrates fined a buy to let company £3,400 and ordered payment of £2,460 costs after faults on 15 shoddy properties were not repaired.

Champlain Ltd admitted nine housing act offences in court.

Magistrates heard about a catalogue of neglect at the homes around West Bromwich – including holed roofs, rotten windows and doors, broken heating systems, dilapidated kitchens and bathrooms and overgrown gardens.

The court heard the company claimed the repairs were too expensive to complete and no funds were available to spend on the work.


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