Mortgage fraud uncovered in South Wales

BRYNCOCH, NEATH – The UK Assets Recovery Agency's financial investigators, working with the South Wales Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, obtained a confiscation order in the sum of £4.2 million against David Edward Dale from Bryncoch, Neath in early December. He admitted building a property portfolio of some 450 houses facilitated by fraudulent mortgages.

The investigation covered the period from 1991 to 1999, during which Dale initially obtained at least 57 homes unlawfully using the details of family and friends, before expanding his operation on a more commercial basis. Judge Michael Burr ordered that he must repay the current market value of each of the houses that formed part of the evidence in the court proceedings, plus the associated income derived from their rental – a total of £4.2 million. The order, which can be satisfied from his assets that were frozen during the course of the proceedings, must be paid within two years, or he will face a default prison sentence of 10 years consecutive to the two years he received in relation to his criminal behaviour. Dale was also ordered to pay a further £100,000 towards the cost of the prosecution.