WANSTEAD: Solicitor charged with £50 million fraud

Laurence Ferrigan is one of six people accused of conning a building society out of tens of millions of pounds by making a series of false mortgage applications.

Mr Ferrigan, who was a partner at the CFB Partnership solicitors in Wanstead High Street, appeared at the City of London Magistrates Court on Friday alongside four of the other accused - three of whom are also solicitors.

The 48-year-old of Ashurst Road in Winchmore Hill is now set to appear at Southwark Crown Court on January 4 charged with conspiracy to obtain a money transfer by deception and dishonestly obtaining a money transfer.

In a statement, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said the men were investigated after a complaint was made in March 2006 by Cheshire Building Society.

It read: "It is alleged that the defendants participated in a series of frauds whereby they dishonestly obtained loans from banks or building societies that were secured on six commercial investment properties.

"Each property was transferred between companies controlled by one of the defendants and his associates at highly inflated prices in a series of back to back transactions.

"On the basis of the grossly inflated prices, fraudulent valuations and forged leases, the defendants applied for and obtained mortgage advances totalling nearly £50 million.

"The mortgages were quickly defaulted on and the lenders suffered significant losses."

The other alleged members of the scam were Ian McGarry, a chartered surveyor at the firm Dunlop Haywards Lorenz, Fatema Patwa the owner of Patwa Solicitors, based in Birmingham, Hardeep Sodhi - a solicitor at the same firm - Saghir Afzal, a company director and property owner - all of whom have been charged with conspiracy to obtain a money transfer by deception and dishonestly obtaining a money transfer.

Simon Lawrence, a partner at Darlingtons Solicitors in Edgware, London, has been charged with conspiracy to obtain a money transfer by deception.