Agent jailed for property fraud

An estate agent is one of three men now behind bars for their parts in a mortgage fraud and money-laundering scheme which involved eight properties and totalled over £3m.

The three - including Armagh estate agent Damien Mallon - worked in County Down, Northern Ireland, and were involved in the offences which took place from 2002 to 2008, when the province’s residential boom was at its height.

Mallon and bank manager Peter Creegan and solicitor Peter Brassil, both from Newry, pleaded guilty to charges including theft, false accounting, and concealing and transferring criminal property.

Their offences involved allegedly using their positions to obtain loans on land and properties in Armagh and Louth; the valuations on the properties were inflated to require larger mortgages and allow opportunities for money laundering.

Mallon has been sentenced to 12 months in jail; Creegan was jailed for two years with another year on licence, while Brassil was sentenced to a year in prison and a year on licence.