Fraudulent Property Transactions – What Can Be Done?

The recent news story of Reverend Mike Hall demonstrates how sophisticated fraudsters can impersonate a property owner's identity and, ultimately, change the legal ownership of a property at the Land Registry and sell it as their own.

Reverend Hall had been working in North Wales when he received a call from his neighbours telling him that someone was in his Luton home. Reverend Hall drove back to the property and found that the locks had been changed and that there was a man inside carrying out building works. All the furnishings had been removed from the property.

It was established that Reverend Hall's driving licence had been cloned and a bank account set up in his name by the 'sellers' in order to receive the sale proceeds. The property was sold to the new owner for £131,000. Reverend Hall checked the title deeds of the property on the Land Registry and found that it had indeed been registered in the new owner's name. A man has since been arrested on