Bank manager, solicitor and estate agent jailed for mortgage fraud

Three men have been jailed for their parts in a multi-million pound mortgage fraud and money-laundering scheme.

The trio all worked in the Newry area of County Down.

Peter Creegan, from Liska Manor, Newry, once managed the First Trust bank in Newry, Peter Brassil, from Chancellor's Road, Newry, is a former solicitor, and Damien Mallon, from Drumcomwell Road, Armagh, was an estate agent.

Police described their investigation as "complex and far reaching".

The three men falsified mortgage applications totalling millions of pounds.

The fraud involved eight properties and amounted to more than £3m.

These were sophisticated and well-planned frauds which involved serious breaches of trust”

It was carried out over a period spanning from 2002 to 2008, at the height of the property boom.

Unsuspecting innocents.

All three had pleaded guilty to charges that included theft, false accounting, concealing criminal property and transferring criminal property.

Some of the applications were made in the names of people who did not exist, including a fictitious BBC producer.

Others were unsuspecting innocents who had their identities stolen and used by the gang.

In some cases the value of the properties was vastly inflated, leading to bigger mortgages and greater opportunities for the laundering of money.

Det Chf Insp Todd Clements of the Police Service of Northern Ireland's (PSNI) Organised Crime Branch said his officers spent years following a massive international paper trail in a bid to bring the trio to justice.

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