Men sentenced in mortgage fraud case

Two men have been sentenced in connection with a fraud case which saw the duo profit hundreds of thousands of pounds.

A lengthy and in-depth investigation launched by our Regional Organised Crime Unit alongside His Majesty's Revenue and Customs, found that Anthony Kafetzis and Jatinder Chohan worked together to make fraudulent mortgage applications which resulted in large amounts of money being provided - parts of which were diverted into a bank account owned by Kafetzis.

Kafetzis, 67, and Chohan, 43, a qualified mortgage broker, made fraudulent mortgage applications, inflating figures and falsifying documents including income and borrowing amounts.

In one case, a victim applied for a mortgage of £106,000.00, but the duo made a false application with inflated figures, which resulted in an additional £30,146.00 being paid to Kafetzis.

The two also worked together on stamp duty fraud, whereby they were obtaining money from property purchasers on pretext they were paying stamp duty.

But in fact they were then making a false submission via an online portal belonging to a company registered to Chohan, stating the property purchase was exempt from Stamp Duty, which allowed them to keep over £147,000 for themselves.

Further enquiries found that over a 10-year period Kafetzis received over £1.5million in deposits and business accounts showed he was making profits of between £250,000 and £340,000 per year, despite informing HMRC that he was declaring income under the tax threshold, defrauding HMRC out of £433,000.00. This resulted in him being entitled to working and child-tax credits , and claiming tax credits to the value of £64,000.00

Following a lengthy trial at Birmingham Crown Court, Kafetzis was found guilty by the jury of false accounting, fraud, and theft. The 68-year-old also pleaded guilty to fraudulent tax evasion and fraud in relation to receiving working and child tax credits.

At the sentencing, the prosecuting Judge HHJ Jacobs stated to Kafetzis: "I am sure the frauds were instigated by you.

"You are the direct line and lynchpin for all these frauds."

On 7th September, Kafetzis, of Honiley Road, Solihull, was handed a six-year jail sentence. Chohan of Green Road, Hall Green, was found guilty of fraud, and was handed a three-year suspended sentence, 150 hours community service, and 20 days rehabilitation order.

Both are now subject to a confiscation investigation under the Proceeds of Act.