This has been known about by the SFO for quite some time now and wonder why only now it is public ?. I think also there is some connection to a Building Society whom I wont name here.

Alan Spears, Hertford, UK

This comes as no surprise to me as with open eyes I’ve seen the truth of the UK housing market for what it is a pure speculative bubble, which was given birth to through artificially low interest rates. The ugly face of greed showed itself throughout the market and a classic pyramid began to form.

Self certification and interest only mortgages are both open to abuse and ticking time bombs.

Gordon Browns so called ‘Miracle economy’ is based purely on debt and now the poisons are beginning to hatch from the mud.

The social and economic consequences are yet to be seen.

Ad, Southampton,

when i applied for a mortgage, my accountant had to verify my income. So how come the lenders have been duped? any potential businessman will have accountants and they will provide proof of income. the fact they rely on self certification suggests that the lenders are eager to lend. it takes two to make a con. there is connivance of both parties. both are culpable. the lenders should also be investigated and charged too.

anthony wong, london, uk

Sounds amazing.
Lenders lend hundreds of thousands of pounds but can't be bothered to check the veracity of the documents supplied?

Self certification should have by default been stringently assessed .

Now the savers exposed to this fraud via thier mutual funds will be paying the price. Well done lenders!!!!!!

abhay, London,

There will be quite a few worried surveyors and solicitors out there after reading stories of this type. The vast majority of these will be innocent, but will be wondering (in the case of surveyors) if they did over value certain properties at the height of the boom. Solicitors and other conveyancers are under obligations to report certain suspicions to avoid falling foul of the money laundering provisions. How many will now be thinking, was that particular buyer earning what they declared or was that BTL investor really going to live in the property? If the buyer lied, the mortgage advance was obtained fraudulently and so fell within the money laundering provisions. A couple at least of niave (rather than intentionally criminal) solicitors have already spent time in jail as a result. The good news for those currently priced out of the market? Surveyors and solicitors will have to be much more cautious - this in turn will help to speed up the property crash in the UK.

Graham, Oxford, UK

This problem would be stopped today if the banks took the trouble to write to employers and obtained verification of earnings.

Nigel, Bedford, England

Why would the first stage in a police operation be to establish lender's liability? I would have thought it was to identify if anyone has broken the law.

Malcolm, Wirral, UK

"Banks and building societies simply would not have authorised these loans if they knew the risk they were taking up"

Oh wouldn't they? The Money Programme devoted its edition of 29.10.03 to mortgage fraud, which it claimed was widespread. I recall the banks and building societies queued up to say that the programme was alarmist, they had absolutely wonderful controls in place to prevent such misbehaviour etc.

They can't now say they hadn't been warned, and this is all a shocking surprise.

Michael Smith, Southampton, UK

Who is kidding who here? There are lenders who have only had the mirror test "breathe here sir" (to test the mortgagee is alive) and then lent 5 or more times at 125% loan to value - There is a name for this - its called sub-prime - only now its got a bad name and if people default they lose money . . . .

In retrospect which will be the bigger scandal - the 500 "fraudulent" applications or the 1 million "mis-sold mortgages" that the FSA will find in a few years. Its all about greed on both sides - I'm sure they will all pay the price.

S Baker, Leeds, North Yorkshire

It was high lighted by the BBC years ago that self cert mortgages were being falsely used with people claiming much higher incomes, the banks all denied it!
so now that things are not looking so good they want to investigate !!
This was pushed by the financial advisors knowing it fraud. This was the only way alot of people could afford houses and help to keep this unsustanable house inflation keep going and hay the banks mad bigger proffits

andy, petersfield,