Penarth lawyer jailed for 12 years for his part in £30million mortgage scam

Jonathan Gilbert, 48, of Meliden Road, was one of four men jailed for a combined total of 34 years at Southwark Crown Court this week.

The four men conned lenders by pretending to buy homes of innocent householders who were unaware their properties were being used in the scam.

Victims lost their homes and the solicitors' firm where Gilbert was a partner went bust, with the loss of 70 jobs, as a result of the calculated four-year conspiracy.

Gilbert pleaded guilty to 18 counts of conspiracy to defraud, with six identical counts allowed to lie on file.

They were so brazen in their scheme that they even managed to raise five separate mortgages on the same unoccupied house.

Following a five-year police probe and 26-week trial, Virgin Airways pilot Mark Entwistle, solicitor Jonathan Gilbert, and mortgage brokers Matthew Robinson and Nicholas Pomroy were jailed for a combined total of 34 years.

Judge Martin Beddoe told the men: "This was very well orchestrated, professional offending over a long period of time, using and abusing the identities of others."

The judge criticised Entwistle's lack of remorse, calling him "arrogant and greedy," and said: "A great deal of the money was blown on your excesses as you, Mr Entwistle, vainly presented yourself to your friends as what a rich and successful man you were."

The Southwark Crown Court trial heard Entwistle was the ring leader in the fraud, which was conducted under the cover of advancing the airline pilot's supposedly booming property empire.

Yet, he spent fortunes splashing the cash on living the high life with lavish gambling trips to Las Vegas and even buying himself an expensive motor boat to cruise the River Thames.

Entwistle claimed he had intended to use the dodgy loans to build up a property portfolio which he hoped would bear fruit, so he could pay off the mortgages "without anyone being none the wiser."

Yet the judge said the bogus mortgages were being used to "rob Peter to pay Paul," as the debts mounted - especially after the 2008 credit crunch crash.

When the scheme finally collapsed, a chain of solicitors went out of business and at least two couples lost their homes.

Judge Beddoe said Entwistle was "pathologically dishonest," telling him: "This is a story of arrogance and greed. You may have been a good pilot, you may have had a great vision for developing properties in and around Windsor, but none of that excuses your dishonesty and greed."

Police said they were "delighted" with the result following an investigation which began in July 2009 when Wilmett Solicitors in Maidenhead, Berks - where Gilbert was a partner - reported irregularities and was forced out of business.

Entwistle, aged 47 years, who had a large property portfolio as a developer and traded under various derivatives of "Rigsby New Homes," worked with Gilbert to obtain illegal mortgages on a number of properties and sites between 2005 and 2009.

Entwistle applied for mortgages and Gilbert, 48, acted as his solicitor. Mortgage brokers Robinson and Pomroy processed the false applications.

When the mortgages were approved, Gilbert did not tell the Land Registry about other mortgages on the property, tricking lenders into thinking they had more legal rights and collateral than they did.

In total, the four men obtained fraudulent mortgages just over £30 million pounds from 12 different companies before the fraud was detected in 2009.

One house in St Mary's Road, Ascot, Berks, was remortgaged five times for more than £3 million. The property - Woodberry Down - has since been demolished.

The gang also took out mortgages on properties already owned by unconnected people, who had no idea a mortgage had been taken out on their home until the lender told them payments had been missed.

Some now face losing their homes as a result.

Wilmett Solicitors went into liquidation in 2009 because of the fraud and Gilbert was disbarred and banned from practising as a solicitor in the same year. His fellow partners faced financial ruin when they were saddled with the liability.

During the police investigation, it emerged that all paperwork held by Gilbert at the solicitors' firm had been destroyed.

Entwistle, from Kings Road, Windsor, Berks., was jailed for 14 years after being convicted of 21 counts of conspiracy to defraud and one count of conspiracy to launder criminal property. He was acquitted on one count of conspiracy to commit corruption.

Gilbert, of Meliden Road, Penarth, pleaded guilty to 18 counts of conspiracy to defraud, with six identical counts allowed to lie on file. He was jailed for 12 years.

Robinson, 42, from King Street, Richmond-upon-Thames, Surrey, was found guilty of four counts of conspiracy to defraud and one count of conspiracy to launder criminal property. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

And Pomroy, 58, of Heath End Road, Baughurst, Hants., was jailed for three years after he was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to defraud.

All four men, dressed in black designer suits, remained expressionless as they were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court.

Judge Beddoe told Gilbert his crimes were "as bad a breach of trust as it could get," adding: "Mr Entwistle could have achieved almost nothing of what he managed without your avid complicity."

The judge said Robinson too was "inherently dishonest," and "demonstrably the enabler, helping Mr Entwistle when other routes (of raising funds) were unavailable to him to achieve his dishonest objectives."

Pomroy was blasted as "betraying the trust of lenders," adding: "You deliberately told lies and made up figures that were untrue."

All four men were said to have betrayed the public's trust and confidence in their professions.

Speaking on Monday, Detective Chief Inspector Mick Saunders said: "Fraud is not a victimless crime. Testimony was heard in court about the stress suffered by some whose homes seem to have been sold from underneath them, those who lost life savings and investments and those who lost jobs due to the callous and predatory actions of Entwistle and those who worked with him.

"This organised gang defrauded millions of pounds and I am pleased with the prison terms handed down to them.

"I hope their time behind bars will give them the opportunity to reflect on the pain and misery their actions have caused.

"We continue to investigate their financial affairs to bring Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings against them to ensure they do not benefit from their crime."

Two other defendants, Philip Barker, 47, from West Park, Harrogate, and Shon Williams, aged 48 years, from Nightingale Close, East Grinstead, West Sussex, were acquitted by the jury of involvement in any conspiracy to defraud or commit corruption.