A mother and daughter team who helped a Dubai-based gang make a false £1.2 million application for a bridging loan by taking the identity of a deceased Kensington landlady have been jailed for property fraud.

31-year-old Laylah De Cruz (pictured) is to serve a five-year sentence and 62-year-old mother Dianne Moorcroft a three year term following a trial at Southwark Crown Court, during which the pair denied the fraud.

The two were part of a gang, the rest of whom are still being sought, who identified a rental property belonging to a deceased landlady and then rented it using false papers. After this, with the help of her daughter, Moorcroft changed her name by Deed Poll to the landlady’s name.

She later put the property on Eagle Place in Kensington on the market and, posing as the millionaire but actually deceased owner of the property, subsequently applied for a bridging loan of £1.2 million, which she was granted.

The funds were then transferred to Dubai and have since not been traced. Moorcroft was arrested at her Blackpool home in February 2015 while De Cruz was arrested on her return from Dubai, where she lived as an expat, in May 2016.

Suspicious officials

The fraud was picked up by suspicious officials from The Land Registry after the money had been transferred to Dubai, and an investigation launched in October 2014 by detectives from the Met’s Operation Falcon team, which specialises in property fraud committed within London’s central districts.

“Property fraud causes a huge amount of distress to its victims and Friday’s custodial sentences properly reflects the serious nature of the crimes,” Alasdair Lewis, Director of Legal Services at HM Land Registry, told The Mirror.

“At HM Land Registry we have prevented frauds on registered properties worth millions of pounds, but no system can be 100 per cent fraud-proof which is why we urge people to keep their contact details up to date and to sign up for our free Property Alert service.”

The pair’s fraud gained credibility in part by the listing that the couple gained for the property via a leading central London agent, and the case highlights the problems negotiators face when taking on instructions.

The 2017 Anti-Money Laundering regulations are about to come into force this June and will require agents to consider both vendors and purchasers when completing Customer Due Diligence.

“Additional checks will need to be made by sales agents and auctioneers, which will be complicated by the fact that buyers are sometimes at arm’s length and there’s not necessarily a face to face relationship,” says Mark Hayward, NAEA Propertymark Chief Executive.

“However, further clarity will be required as to at what point the purchaser becomes a purchaser, and this is an issue we will be seeking guidance on.”