from the building society.

Ian McGarry, 40, a former chartered surveyor at Dunlop Haywards Lorenz, was charged along with four other defendants

over conspiracy to obtain a money transfer by deception and dishonetly obtaining a money transfer. The four others were: Fatema Patwa,

47, former sole owner of her firm Patwa Solicitors in Birmingham; Hardeep Sodhi, 33, previously a solicitor at Patwa Solicitors and

Laurence Ferrigan, 48, a former partner at The CFB Partnership in Wanstead, East London. The sixth defendant, 49-year-old Simon Lawrence,

a former partner at Darlingtons Solicitors in Edgware, London, was charged with conspiracy to obtain a money transfer by deception.

It is alleged that the defendants participated in a series of frauds whereby they dishonestly obtained loans from banks or building societies

that were secured on six commercial investment properties. It is suspected that each property was transferred between companies

controlled by one of the defendants and his associates at highly inflated prices in a series of back to back transactions.

On the basis of the grossly inflated prices, fraudulent valuations and forged leases, the defendants applied for and obtained mortgage

advances totalling nearly £50m. The mortgages were quickly defaulted on and the lenders suffered huge losses.

The case has been sent to Southwark Crown Court for a preliminary hearing on 4 January 2010.