Crooked mortgage broker jailed

Fifty-eight-year-old Nicholas Pomroy, who lived at Heath End Road, Baughurst, was led to the cells with the condemnation of Judge Martin Beddoe ringing in his ears after being told he “betrayed the trust of lenders”.
As a result of the conspiracy, Southwark Crown Court heard, some victims lost their homes and Reading-based Wilmett Solicitors went bust, with the loss of 70 jobs.
A five-year police probe revealed Pomroy processed false mortgage applications in the scam.
The gang, which also comprised an airline pilot and a lawyer, plotted to rake in more than £30m by taking out multiple bogus mortgages on innocent strangers’ homes.
The 26-week trial heard that Virgin Airways pilot Mark Entwistle was the ringleader in the fraud, conducted under the cover of advancing his supposedly booming property empire.
Entwistle, of Kings Road, Windsor, splashed the cash on high living, including lavish Las Vegas gambling trips and an expensive motorboat to cruise the River Thames.
The 47-year-old worked with solicitor Jonathan Gilbert of Penarth, South Glamorgan, to obtain illegal mortgages on a number of properties and sites between 2005 and 2009, the jury heard.
Mortgage brokers Pomroy and Matthew Robinson, aged 42, from Richmond-on-Thames, Surrey, processed the false applications.
When the mortgages were approved, Gilbert did not tell the Land Registry about other mortgages on the property, tricking lenders into thinking they had more legal rights and collateral than they did.
In total, the four men obtained fraudulent mortgages worth just over £30m from 12 different companies before the fraud was detected in 2009.
The gang also took out mortgages on properties already owned by unconnected people, who had no idea a mortgage had been taken out on their home until the lender told them payments had been missed, the court heard.
Judge Eddoes said that, as the debts mounted, the bogus mortgages were being used to “rob Peter to pay Paul”.
Jailing Pomroy for three years after he was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to defraud, Judge Eddoes told him: “You deliberately told lies and made up figures that were untrue.”
Entwistle was jailed for 14 years after being convicted of 21 counts of conspiracy to defraud and one count of conspiracy to launder criminal property. He was acquitted on one count of conspiracy to commit corruption.
Gilbert admitted 18 counts of conspiracy to defraud, with six identical counts allowed to lie on file. He was jailed for 12 years.
Robinson was convicted of four counts of conspiracy to defraud and one count of conspiracy to launder criminal property. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
Speaking after the sentencing on Monday, Det Chief Insp Mick Saunders said: “This organised gang defrauded millions of pounds and I’m pleased with the prison terms handed down to them. I hope their time behind bars will give them the opportunity to reflect on the pain and misery their actions have caused.”