The trial of a buy to let investor accused of using forged references and false information to apply for mortgages worth over £1.5m for but to let properties, some during a period when he was serving a prison sentence, began this week.
Steven Dickens, aged 44, of Marine Road, Rhos On Sea, North Wales, faces 16 counts under the Theft Act 1968 including 11 counts of obtaining a money transfer by deception, one of furnishing false information and four counts of procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception.
Another defendant, Yasminah Bibi Jhurry, aged 33, also of Marine Road, is accused of five counts under the act including four of obtaining a money transfer by deception and one of procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception.
Both have pleaded not guilty.
At the opening of the trial the court heard that Dickens was in prison for an offence of violent disorder. The lenders who the duo are accused of duping with false information, references and forged pay slips include the Alliance and Leicester, the Nationwide Building Society and the Halifax Building Society.
The jury were informed that Stanley Joseph Dickens, Steven Dickens’ father, was not fit to stand trial in the case and his mother June Dorothy Dickens had already admitted one count of obtaining a money transfer by deception at a previous hearing.
The trial is expected to last several weeks.
