Nigerian Solicitor vanishes after £7m mortgage scam Shame! Shame!!!
Solicitor vanishes after £7m mortgage scam
Feb 4 2008
By Jeanette Oldham
A SOLICITOR has vanished following a suspected £7 million mortgage scam.
Vincent Okey Udah, 49, disappeared after Birmingham Midshires and other Midland financial institutions were allegedly duped out of the cash.
A source said: "The fraud is on a national scale and some of the UK's biggest mortgage companies have been stung for millions." MIDLAND banks and building societies are among victims of a suspected £7 million mort-gage fraud. And police are set to question Nigerian-born solicitor Vincent Okey Udah, 49, about the alleged scam.
The lawyer has not been seen for several weeks - and detectives believe he may now have left the country. He and solicitor associates are thought to have borrowed millions from a dozen of the UK's biggest mortgage lenders, including three in the Midlands, and detectives now fear the money may be lost. A source said: "The fraud is on a national scale and some of the UK's biggest mortgage companies have been stung for millions." The Midland brokers believed to have been targeted include Wolverhampton- based Birmingham Midshires and West Bromwich Building Society. The suspected fraud was uncovered six weeks ago by a third Midland mortgage lender, who alerted West Midlands Police.
The Metropolitan Police is now investigating the alleged scam and is believed to be close to making arrests. But the lenders do not expect to get all their money back and the fraud could add to the difficulties of UK-wide lenders, already facing financial strain over their exposure to credit markets. Investigators believe suspects in the case struck mortgage deals with the lenders, but then failed to pass on the mortgage funds to prospective home buyers. A source explained: "Solicitors act as agents for the lender and property purchaser. They hold the mortgage loan on behalf of the two parties. This alleged fraud seems to have involved the disappearance of that money in the middle of the process."
Police are understood to be investigating at least two London-based firms of solicitors in connection with the alleged scam. One firm is Okey Udah Solicitors and Co, of which Mr Okey Udah is a partner. The Sunday Mercury has learned that the firm was forcibly shut down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) on January 11. The other practice is Alice Emmanuel and Co Solicitors -where Mr Okey Udah formerly worked - and was also closed by the SRA on Tuesday. An SRA spokesman said the move was due to "serious concerns about the running of the firms."
The West Midland mortgage lender that tipped off police is said to have uncovered the fraud within its own business in November. Internal auditors found that a £500,000 mortgage deal struck with Okey Udah Solicitors on behalf of a house buyer had "come unstuck". The mortgage funds sent by the lender to the solicitors' practice apparently never reached the intended client. As a result, the lender had Okey Udah Solicitors' assets successfully frozen through the High Court.
Agents who then tried to serve a High Court writ against Mr Okey Udah personally, at his London home, were told by his wife that he had left the country. A source said: "Needless to say, she wasn't very happy with the situation. She said he had gone abroad but she didn't know where." Mr Okey Udah qualified as a solicitor in 2003 at the age of 44. He is thought to be a supporter and campaigner for a UK group that sends aid to residents of a Nigerian town that was once caught up in civil war.
Sources close to the police probe say at least 12 of the UK's biggest mortgage lenders have been defrauded in the scam. One or two are thought to have lost at least £2 million each and the total amount involved could top £7 million. Among the worst hit is said to be Birmingham Midshires, which was last year named best buy to-let mortgage lender in Your Mortgage Awards.
It is thought the alleged fraud-sters obtained numerous mortgages to build residential property portfolios worth millions of pounds. They may also have created false identities to borrow from lenders at inflated prices, then pocketed the difference. The Metropolitan Police said it could not comment on active investigations. Geoffrey Negus, spokesman for the Solicitors Regulation Authority, confirmed: "On the 11th January 2008 we closed down the firm of Okey Udah Solicitors and Co, of 163 Rye Lane, London, due to serious concerns about the running of the firm. "The practising certificates of three of the solicitors there, including that of Mr Okey Udah, a partner in the firm, have been suspended."
The SRA regulates 8,000 practices in England and Wales and on average, intervenes to shut down around 50 a year. "I think that shows the seriousness of such a move," Mr Negus added. A spokeswoman for Birmingham Midshires refused to comment at this time. But sources revealed that an internal inquiry into its trading history with the solicitors' practices under suspicion was underway. An insider said: "I believe it's at an early stage and those involved are assessing the potential sums involved."
West Bromwich Building Society said it had never fully completed a deal with Okey Udah Solicitors and Co and had removed it from its list in December last year. The alleged British fraud comes just two weeks after rogue trader Jerome Kerviel, 31, was arrested following a £3.7 billion banking fraud in France. He is alleged to have gambled the money on the European futures market.
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