Durham police bust mortgage fraud scheme

PICKERING Working with the Bank of Montreal, Durham police have charged six men in an organized home mortgage fraud scheme. They are facing over 40 charges and police have seized four vehicles. The total amount of the fraudulent home and lines of credit loans would have been $730,000.

Working with Bank of Montreal Corporate Security in an investigation into mortgage frauds in Pickering, Durham Regional Police watched the Bank of Montreal branch at 1298 Kingston Road in Pickering Thursday as three men, one at a time, entered the bank and attempted to get mortgages and lines of credit using counterfeit identification and forged supporting documents. One by one plainclothes officers waiting inside the bank arrested them.

Three others were arrested outside the bank in a 2008 Mercedes SUV. Police say these men provided the counterfeit identification to the others who then entered the bank to obtain the lines of credit and mortgages. Six men were arrested at the scene and police seized four vehicles for investigation including the 2008 Mercedes SUV, a Mercedes sedan, a Honda CRV and a Nissan Pathfinder. One of the six, a Pickering man, was not charged and was released.

A seventh man was arrested at his home on Storrington Street in Pickering shortly after. A search of the man’s home turned up counterfeit driver’s licences including what police describe as very good quality вЂnew’ Ontario driver’s licences, counterfeit Social Insurance cards, forged letters of employment, counterfeit credit cards and $5,000 in cash. Investigators will be looking into the seizure of the vehicles under asset forfeiture laws. The investigation is continuing.