Last Updated- Feb 16, 2009 13:34 - - 0 Comments


Ghanaian jailed and banned for mortgage fraud in UK

A London mortgage broker received a jail sentence of four years and nine months for fraud and was banned by Britain’s financial regulator.

Leo Kusi-Appiah, 42, of Welwyn Garden City, England, pleaded guilty to obtaining property by deception and contempt of court, according to a statement by Hertfordshire police. The Financial Services Authority said today it had banned Kusi-Appiah after he submitted fake mortgage applications in his own name, that of his wife and in the name of a fictitious Ghanaian client.

“Anyone who is determined to lie to mortgage companies regarding their identity or financial status can expect a prison term,” said Detective Sergeant Roy Stammers of the police’s money laundering unit in a statement.

Kusi-Appiah’s fraud is estimated to have netted him 1.6 million pounds ($2.3 million), the police said. The FSA, which described his case as “one of the more serious mortgage fraud cases” it had examined, is cracking down on home-loan brokers, banning 20 in the last year.

Kusi-Appiah lied about his salary on applications, according to the FSA’s report. He also invented a fictitious client called Kwadjo Amoteng from Ghana, in whose name he also made fraudulent applications. The FSA received a letter purportedly from Amoteng admitting to mortgage fraud made in Kusi-Appiah’s name. Kusi- Appiah also faked Amoteng’s identity documents, the FSA said.

“The FSA concluded that the photograph on the driving license” for Amoteng “is in fact a photograph of you wearing a pair of spectacles,” the regulator wrote in its notice to Kusi- Appiah.

Neither the FSA nor the Hertfordshire constabulary could immediately provide lawyer details for Kusi-Appiah.

Source: Bloomberg

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