The heart breaking story of the Luton vicar who had his house recently ‘stolen’ from him by fraudsters has rightly touched a nerve with property owners everywhere. The horror of arriving at your own home to find your keys no longer work in the lock and the house now legally belongs to someone else might seem like a rare experience.
But unfortunately it’s more common than anyone might imagine. Indeed the first time I can remember it happening was in the early 80s and involved a house in one of the most expensive streets in London and a foreign Princess. The major problem with investigating, let alone reporting, this sort of fraud is that victims and their advisors, be they estate agents or solicitors, are loathe to ‘fess up. It’s bad for business and embarrassing to boot.
There have been plenty of high-profile victims, for example Max Hastings’ wife managed to hold on to her property when an on the ball solicitor forewarned her what was going on back in 2015.
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