Mortgage Fraud in the UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Mortgage Fraud in the UK - Essay Example While past research has focused on the personal motivating factors behind the commission of a white-collar crime, this particular article review several facets of the crime itself and explores the possible neighborhood risk factors that help attract the crime. From a national perspective, mortgage fraud seems to take place more frequently in neighborhoods that have low socioeconomic indicators. These links become even more distinct when the amount of fraud occurrences within the community is factored in as a variable. Upon disaggregating the data according to the region, the fraud indicator variables also display differing trend levels, perhaps indicating that as mortgage fraud practices begin to mature within an area, its community dynamics are likely to modify as well.  In conclusion, mortgage fraud is on the increase in the United Kingdom and good measures need to be put in place to curb the crime. A delay in proactive and preventive measures in regard to mortgage fraud will gre atly affect the economy and that the revenue collected by the government will reduce drastically. Mortgages have a long history spanning from the 12th century but have been in common use in the UK housing sector since 1925. The word mortgage is said to derive from the French for a ‘dead pledge’ meaning â€Å"the one in which the borrower has to find ways to repay the loan† (Giles 2009). According to Giles (2009), the process of securing a mortgage can be defined as â€Å"Alien on a piece of land or property as security for a debt†. During late 2008 and early 2009, the downturn in the UK economy had a drastic impact on the once strong housing sector with house prices slumping and mortgage approval decisions declining (House Price Crash 2009). A leading factor as to why lenders run into financial trouble was lending to applicants who had provided falsified information (BBC News 2009).