Mortgage fraud has jumped by nearly 33% in the past year, according to short-term loan firm Apex Bridging. 

Apex analysed the number of fraud and computer misuse offences in England and Wales recorded by Action Fraud or referred to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) between April 2022 and March this year and looked at how these numbers compare to the previous 12 months. 

In the past year, mortgage fraud in England and Wales has increased by 32.8%, the second-highest increase of all banking and credit industry fraud. 

Another common form of property fraud is rental, where would-be tenants are tricked into paying an upfront fee to rent a property that often doesn’t exist. Rental fraud has seen a smaller annual increase (5.1%) than mortgage fraud but remains far more prominent with 5,098 reported cases across the year. 

People are most vulnerable to property fraud if they are landlords, live overseas, keep their property empty, have unmortgaged property, or don’t have their property registered on His Majesty’s Land Registry (HMLR). 

Chris Hodgkinson, MD at Apex Bridging, says: “There is so much money involved with property that it’s difficult for career-criminals and chancers alike to resist. Whether they’re stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds through mortgage fraud, or a few hundred quid through rental fraud, it’s rife and cases are on the rise.”