Met Detective jailed over £4.6m mortgage fraud

Detective Sergeant Charles Overend has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison by Southwark Crown Court for his part in a £4.6 million mortgage fraud.  

Overend built up a 32 buy-to-let property portfolio by inflating the value of houses so that he could borrow more from lenders. He was assisted in his fraud by 48-year-old solicitor’s clerk Carroll Thompson and his brother, 46-year-old Jonathan Overend.  

Specialist fraud investigator Charles Overend pleaded guilty to six counts of obtaining a money transfer by deception and possessing a false identity document. He obtained a discount on the asking price of properties then applied for mortgages at the original value. 

‘These were multiple frauds, which were intended to make you enormously rich. They were motivated by simple greed,’ said Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith, according to the Daily Telegraph. ‘These were part of a property portfolio which you, a man earning a comparatively modest salary, hoped would create a hugely profitable alternative income.’ 

The court heard that Overend’s finances were hit by the credit crisis and lost between £250,000 and £500,000. The Metropolitan Police allowed Overend to resign in May.  

‘The sheer scale and effectiveness of this fraud were remarkable. Lenders were eager to make the most of the property boom and Charles Overend knew how to exploit them to turn himself into a property millionaire,’ said Stephen Rowland, reviewing lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service central fraud group.

‘This trio did not have the cash to get heavily involved in property, so they decided deception was the answer.’ 

Carroll pleased guilty to three counts of conspiracy to defraud and was given a 150 week suspended sentence and 200 hours of unpaid labour. Carroll supported Overend’s frauds by signing bogus documents and sending them to other firms of solicitors. 

Harrogate-based Jonathan Overend was sentenced to one year imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining a money transfer by deception in relation to one Yorkshire property.