A financial adviser has been handed a suspended 10-month prison sentence for mortgage fraud following an investigation which began as an illegal drugs probe. Louise Butler, of Barry in South Wales, and accomplice Mark Fowles offered a third individual, John Cope, £5,000 to use his personal details to apply for a mortgage in a bid to avoid taxation costs.
Butler then used her position as a “financial adviser” to process the necessary papers through the lender, according to Gloucestershire Police.
The trio were this week sentenced at Gloucester Crown Court after pleading guilty to conspiracy to obtain a mortgage by deception.
Butler, 31, received a 10-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months as well as a year-long supervision order.
Cope, 39, was handed a 12-month community order with 150 hours unpaid work while Fowles, also 39, was sentenced to a 10-month prison sentence suspended for a year and 200 hours unpaid work
But the investigation initially had nothing to do with illegal mortgage activity.
It began in November 2008 when a property was raided in an operation led by police constable Duncan Sleeman.
Officers uncovered a large number of cannabis plants and seven people were subsequently arrested.
Evidential reasons meant no one was ever charged with offences relating to the cannabis plants, however three people – Butler, Fowles and Cope – were later charged with mortgage fraud.
Chief inspector of Forest of Dean police Phil Haynes says: “This investigation started out to be a relatively straightforward drugs operation but, as can happen with these cases, it then diverted into one of financial fraud.”
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