Saturday, October 31, 2009

And still the leader of the council hasn't responded...

When this story came to light, I emailed George Dunning bringing this to his attention to the details about Persimmon homes instrumental involvement in the multi million pound mortgage fraud which had taken place in Thamesmead and which is being heard at Southwark Crown Court and asking him why our council was involving itself with a developer involved in such a scandal to such a large degree? He said that he would make further investigations. Despite having emailed him a couple more times, he still hasn't made any further comment about his investigations and what he intends to do about it.

It makes you wonder if he really wants to?

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council are In bed up to their necks with Persimmon Homes PLC.

They have, as Councilor Mark Hannon admitted in the press this week, spent THREE MILLION POUNDS OF PUBLIC MONEY assisting Persimmon Homes PLC in trying and get the Coatham scheme started. They have spent public money on things on behalf of Persimmon Homes, thet they should never have spent public money on. They are liable for the cost of a multi million pound sea defence which has to be built as part of the Coatham scheme and which is Persimmon Homes' sole responsibility. They have done all of this and spent all of that public money and are going to spend even more public money on a developer who involve themselves in multi million pound mortgage frauds.

Would you give your money to a dodgy car dealer? Of course you wouldn't. So why on earth is our council giving millions of pounds of public money to a developer who has been instrumental in a multi million pound fraud?

I wonder what the people of Redcar and Cleveland will think when they read this in our next news letter?

October 30, 2009

DARTFORD, KENT

An estate agent accused of helping to run a £19m sub-prime mortgage con told his trial he just wanted to help people ‘get on the property ladder’.

Sierra Leonian immigrant Mohammed Barrie, 38, helped swindle millions in an elaborate scam in which construction giant Persimmon Homes played an ‘instrumental’ role, it is claimed.

Barrie’s gang made huge profits when they bought an entire block of flats from Persimmon at a knock-down price before selling on the individual properties, it is alleged.

Prosecutors say the fraudsters created dozens of fake financial histories for their ‘buyers’ so their mortgage applications would be approved.
They also submitted vastly inflated valuations for the flats, duping High Street lenders into handing over far more than the properties were worth to borrowers who had no hope of repaying the money.

The crooks then pocketed the profits - estimated as being at least £3.5m.
Barrie’s cousin Alim Barry who is the alleged mastermind of the scam fled the country with most of the cash and has not been seen since.
Mohammed Barrie told Southwark Crown Court that he thought he was working legitimately for his cousin.

Prosecutors say his role in the scam was to recruit ‘dupes’ from within the Sierra Leonean community to act as mortgage applicants for the flats in Thamesmead, South East London.
It is claimed he and others promised the ‘buyers’ that they could get a luxury flat without paying any deposit, presenting them with detailed prospectuses to persuade them to sign up.

One applicant was even recruited as he queued for groceries in the supermarket, it is said.

Barrie was paid at least £160,000 for five months work for his part in the scam, it is claimed.

But the defendant told the court that the clients would approach him themselves, usually at his local mosque after Friday prayers.
He said: ‘That’s where we met and they asked me if I could help them get on the property ladder.

‘They knew the relationship between Alim and me. They knew Alim was my cousin, and they knew I would introduce them to Alim as well.’
He added: ‘Alim approached me and says he’s buying property off plan, and asks if I can assist in introducing purchasers to him.‘That’s exactly what I did.
‘And he would give me commission on that for each introduction.’

Prosecutor Richard Mandel asked him: ‘You didn’t have to do any selling job at all, if I’m following you, and for that you got a very large sum of money.
‘Or is the position that you were engaging in fraud and the large sum of money, however large it was, was your cut of the fraud?’

The defendant replied: ‘No sir, it was not. I had no knowledge of the fraud.’
Alongside Barrie in the dock are his brother Muctaru Barrie, 29, mortgage valuers Brad Fisher, 44, George Sourou, 43, and Sofiya Ahmed, 28, accountant Dean Dairo, 48, and solicitor Okwuchukwu Izuchukwu.

Accountant Stuart Joseph, 43, has admitted inventing financial references for fraudulent mortgage applicants, the court heard.

Mr Mandel told the court that staff at Persimmon were ‘instrumental’ in creating inflated valuations for the flats so that mortgage lenders would part with more cash.

The court has heard Alim Barry’s shell company Atrex bought the 84 flats from Persimmon for £15.25m and sold them for £18.75m - a profit of £3.5m.

Alim Barry also owned rental properties in Leeds and Manchester, jurors heard.

Mohammed Barrie, of (78) Pinewood Ave, Dartford, Kent; Izuchukwu, of (139) Earlham Grove, Forest Gate, East London; Ahmed, of (153) Howard Road, Walthamstow, East London; Dairo, of (20) Eastern Ave, South Ockendon, Essex; Fisher, of (33) Tiptree Crescent, Ilford, Essex; and Sourou, of (21) The Crescent, Ilford, Essex deny conspiracy to defraud mortgage lenders.

Muctaru Barrie, also of (78) Pinewood Place, Mohammed Barrie and Izuchukwu deny conspiracy to launder criminal property.

Joseph, of (4) Furham Field, Pinner, Middlesex, has admitted seven specimen charges of false accounting.

The trial continues.

ENDS

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Persimmon..associating themselves with corrupted accountants and mortgage lenders? And they're our councils 'preferred developer'? DISGRACEFUL!

Here is the latest story in the multi million pound fraud case that Persimmon were 'instrumental' in.

DARTFORD, ILFORD, WALTHAMSTOW. A crooked accountant has described how he was paid £100 a time to sign off false income statements by a gang of mortgage fraudsters. Stuart Roberts, 43, had ‘never heard’ of his supposed clients when he rubber stamped their financial records, a court heard.
A crooked accountant has described how he was paid £100 a time to sign off false income statements by a gang of mortgage fraudsters.

Stuart Roberts, 43, had ‘never heard’ of his supposed clients when he rubber stamped their financial records, a court heard.

Prosecutors say the accountant was employed by a gang of conmen as part of an elaborate scheme to swindle nearly £19m out of High Street mortgage lenders involving builders Persimmon Homes

Mastermind Alim Barry and his henchmen skimmed off profits of £3.5m by ‘selling’ dozens of luxury flats to penniless dupes, it is said.

Staff at Persimmon Homes – which built the flats and sold them to Barry – are said to have been ‘instrumental’ in the scam.

Barry fled abroad with much of the cash and has not been seen since, leaving his associates to face trial.

Jurors have heard the gang used a network of corrupt mortgage brokers, accountants and solicitors to create new financial histories for their ‘buyers’ so that banks would loan them the cash.

At Southwark Crown Court today, Roberts, who has admitted false accounting, described how he was paid to invent financial histories for potential mortgage applicants.

He said applicants’ details were faxed to him from two different mortgage valuing firms, the Direct Mortgage Centre (DMC) and The Money Superstore (TMS).

Brad Fisher, 44, and Sofiya Ahmed, 28, who both worked at TMS, and George Sourou, 43, of DMC, conspired with Barry to defraud lenders, it is claimed.

Asked how much he would have been paid for providing a years’ worth of fake accounts, Roberts told the court: ‘I would probably have got £100 for each year.
Pointing to one reference, in which he claimed an applicant had earned £81,205 in one year, he said: ‘I didn't want to make it a round figure, because that would look suspicious.

He also told the court he had ‘never heard’ of his supposed clients before.
In the dock alongside Fisher, Sourou and Ahmed are barry’s cousins Mohammed, 39, and Muctaru Barrie, 29, accountant Dean Dairo, 48, and solicitor Okwuchukwu Izuchukwu.

Another Barrie brother, Umaru, also fled the country while on bail.
The court heard Barry’s shell company Atrex bought the fats from Persimmon for £15.25m and sold them for £18.75m – a profit of £3.5m.

Mohammed Barrie, of (78) Pinewood Ave, Dartford, Kent; Izuchukwu, of (139) Earlham Grove, Forest Gate, East London; Ahmed, of (153) Howard Road, Walthamstow, East London; Dairo, of (20) Eastern Ave, South Ockendon, Essex; Fisher, of (33) Tiptree Crescent, Ilford, Essex; and Sourou, of (21) The Crescent, Ilford, Essex deny conspiracy to defraud mortgage lenders.
Muctaru Barrie, also of (78) Pinewood Place, Mohammed Barrie and Izuchukwu deny conspiracy to launder criminal property.

Joseph, of (4) Furham Field, Pinner, Middlesex, has admitted seven specimen charges of false accounting – six relating to TMS and one to DMC.

The trial continues.

ENDS

Thursday, October 15, 2009

It's time for sneaky Baird and her sneaky local authority to be investigated..

I've just been in the Co-op. Standing there in the queue to be served, I noticed a pile of Evening Gazettes. The headline referred to two Teesside MP's refusing to give details about the letters that they had received from Sir Thomas Legg regarding the paying back of monies that they had had no right to claim for in the first place as the things that they had claimed for, had nothing at all to do with their jobs as MP's. http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/2009/10/15/two-teesside-mps-refuse-to-reveal-expenses-letters-84229-24937493/

Instinctively, without even reading the article and only seeing the headline from a distance, I knew that one of the MP's featured would be Vera Baird MP. Why did I know this?

I knew because of the secretive, underhanded, hypocritical way that she has behaved in regard to the Coatham Enclosure scheme. I knew it because on the morning in May 2007 that I phoned her and told her that an officer of the council without consent from the EA and without consulting them changed their planning condition regarding the construction of the sea defence in Coatham to benefit Persimmon Homes PLC, all she said to me was " Yeah well, they've got planning permission".

I knew this by the way she tried claiming for more than she was entitled to as a junior counsell years ago, never mind claiming for things as an MP that she was not entitled to.

I knew this by the way that she not only threatened Robert Goodwill MP into not calling for an independent investigation into the local authority in her constituency and into not showing our film in parliament 18 months ago, she wrongly threatened him by telling him she would report him to the speaker of the House when the speaker told us he had no jurisdiction outside the chamber. I knew it was her by the way that she put pressure on Mr Goodwill to pull his support right up to the day that he actually intervened in the affairs of the local authority in her constituency and showed the film in Parliament this year.

I knew that it was her because when she had stopped Robert Goodwill from calling for the independent investigation into her local authority 18 months ago, she then called for the council to hold an internal investigation to be headed by someone who was involved in the wrong doing within the council and who had been featured in Private Eye magazine three times for that behaviour.

I knew it was her by the way that she said the film "Coatham a Common Concern" was libellous but then took no legal action against it whatsoever, preferring instead to try and bully and threaten an elderly church warden by telephone into not showing it an hour or so before it was shown in Coatham church in May this year.

I knew it was her by the way that she spoke out publicly when the council and their Coatham Planning meeting was found in the High Court to have been unlawful, saying that she had known along with the Labour group that it had been unlawful all along, yet when the decision was overturned at appeal, she said nothing.

I knew that today's Gazette headline was about her because when Mr Goodwill actually did retract his support the day after he had intervened in her constituency and shown the film in Parliament and spoken out against her on local Radio, and just a few days after a major council whistleblower was paid off so his case would not go to tribunal and so air things that the council wanted to keep out of the public domain, she put out a joint statement with the council that said that the council had had claims of corruption within the council investigated by the police and the Audit Commission etc, when no such investigations had ever even taken place!

I knew it was her by the way that she encouraged people to stand as independent candidates in a local elections against Labour candidates, something that she should have been thrown out of the party for.

And I knew it because of what she said at the meeting with me and two other people in in Mrs Bridges cafe in 2006 where in response to me saying that I thought that someone may have taken a bung over the issue of Coatham she repiled that "everyone takes bungs, theres nothing new in that".

This woman is the Solicitor General of this Country. She is a senior member of this Government and as such she should be beyond reproach. She has proved herself to be less than trustworthy, less than honest and behaving in a way that is not befitting an MP never mind Solicitor General. It is high time that this woman and the local authority that she has tried her level best to protect and cover for, were investigated.

The Serious Fraud Office have already stated in writing that the council in her constituency should be investigated by the Police possibly assisted by the CPS, so why has she not heeded this or done anything about it why did she call for an internal investigation instead which was nothing more than a whitewash?

Lets have Vera Baird and her council and anyone else who has been heavily involved with them including Persimmon Homes PLC, who are already in the High Court for being 'instrumental' in a multi million pound mortgage fraud and who have been shown to have been involved in Coatham a year before it was even formerly advertised by the council as a leisure development NOT housing development, all investigated without further delay.

Friday, October 09, 2009

The smell gets stronger and stronger...

Here is the latest report from the court case taking place at Southwark Crown Court regarding the multi million pound mortgage fraud that Persimmon homes were 'instrumental' in. With such a large involvement in this scandal, why were Persimmon homes not investigated and why were charges not brought against them?

Full Report –

October 07, 2009

PINNER, WALTHAMSTOW, SOUTH OCKENDON

Senior managers at one of Britain’s biggest homebuilders knew of problems in a deal to sell a block of flats to an accused mortgage fraudster but still went ahead with it, a court heard today (Wed).

Under the terms of the deal, Persimmon Homes sold 84 brand new apartments to Alim Barry – a Sierra Leonean national now said to have swindled millions out of high-street lenders.

Prosecutors say Barry’s shell company Atrex bought the flats for £15.25m before selling them on at inflated prices to buyers who had fraudulent mortages.
Barry and his accomplices used a network of crooked brokers, accountants and solicitors to create fake financial histories for these applicants and dupe the banks, it is claimed.

The conman has since fled the country with the profits of the scam, after swindling lenders into handing over a total £18.75m in loans, Southwark Crown Court has heard.

Although the firm is not accused of any crime, it is claimed that Persimmon was ‘instrumental’ in allowing the fraud to take place.
Persimmon solicitor Nick Knight told the court he helped draw up the deal Barry made in 2006 to buy the Hill House block in Thamesmead, South East London.

He said Atrex paid an initial deposit of £250,000 on the building, and paid the rest of the cash as the subsequent mortgage deals went through on individual flats.

Mr Knight told the court he had inserted a clause in the contract stating that if Barry did not make the payments with a set timeframe, Persimmon would be entitled to keep his deposit and offer Hill House to other buyers.
But he said that although senior managers in the company’s South East division were aware Barry was missing these deadlines, they decided to continue with the deal.

He named chairman Brendan O’Neill, managing director Edward Owens and sales director Jason Stokes as among those who were allegedly aware of the decision.

Mr Justin Cole, defending Dean Dairo, an accountant accused of helping Barry commit the fraud, asked Mr Knight why Persimmon did not simply terminate the contract.

He said: ‘You tried to protect the position of Persimmon by inserting a clause which meant that if Alim Barry was late, Persimmon could have just walked away with his deposit.
‘We have seen that what in fact happened was the absolute opposite.
‘What in fact they did was tie themselves around the waist of Mr Barry and his selling on of the flats.
‘Who made the decision to wait until then before receiving the money?’

Mr Knight replied: ‘The decision not to terminate the contract would have hinged on how the management of Persimmon South East viewed market conditions at the time.’

He named Mr Stokes and Mr O’Neill as among those who would have been involved in the decision.

Mr Cole added: ‘It would be a nonsense to suggest that Mr Owens, the managing director, would have been ignorant of what was going on.

‘The completions were happening whenever Atrex chose to send money.
‘I think we are agreed that Mr Owens must have known what was going on. And of course Mr Stokes himself.’
The solicitor replied: ‘Yes.’

Mr Knight told the court that another senior Persimmon executive, Nick Thomas, had looked at alternative buyers for the flats.
He said: ‘I think at some stage of the transaction, Mr Thomas to go back and investigate the possibility of going elsewhere.

‘I've seen in the bundle something to the effect that they had another interested party, but couldn't get as much money as under the current Atrex deal.’

In the dock alongside Dairo are Barry’s cousins Mohammed, 39, and Muctaru Barrie, 29, mortgage valuers Brad Fisher, 44, George Sourou, 43, and Sofiya Ahmed, 28, and solicitor Okwuchukwu Izuchukwu.
Mohammed Barrie, of (78) Pinewood Ave, Dartford, Kent; Izuchukwu, of (139) Earlham Grove, Forest Gate, East London; Ahmed, of (153) Howard Road, Walthamstow, East London; Dairo, of (20) Eastern Ave, South Ockendon, Essex; Fisher, of (33) Tiptree Crescent, Ilford, Essex; and Sourou, of (21) The Crescent, Ilford, Essex deny conspiracy to defraud mortgage lenders.
Muctaru Barrie, also of (78) Pinewood Place, Mohammed Barrie and Izuchukwu deny conspiracy to launder criminal property.

Joseph, of (4) Furham Field, Pinner, Middlesex, has admitted seven specimen charges of false accounting.

The trial continues.

ENDS

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