Two still held in Cork over €1m mortgage fraud

Four of six people arrested as part of an investigation into a €1 million mortgage fraud, in which people created false identities to obtain money from banks and financial institutions, have been released.

A man and woman are still being held in Co Cork as part of the investigation, which gardaí say is ongoing.

Four men and two women were arrested yesterday after a series of raids across county Cork. They were detained at a number of Garda stations under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, which allows gardaí detain suspects for up to seven days.

The investigation relates to a highly sophisticated fraud where people created false names and bank accounts to obtain mortgages on a number of properties in Munster from three different financial institutions between 2006 and 2008, according to an informed source.

The suspects initially made repayments on the mortgage but when they defaulted on their repayments and the banks went investigating, they discovered that mortgages had been given to people who did not exist.

The financial institutions notified gardaí who began an investigation and yesterday’s series of raids followed an extensive operation by gardaí into the creation of false documentation and identities to support the fake mortgage applications.

Gardaí also seized a large amount of documentation along with computers, storage devices and phones during yesterday’s raids which were mainly on private dwellings but did include one business premises.