Nicholas Pomroy, an ICAEW member and FCA, was part of a team brought together by Mark Entwistle who masqueraded as a successful property developer in the Ascot and Windsor areas.

Along with solicitors and others he helped provide information to support bogus mortgage applications. Entwistle then used the money to fund a luxury boat and gambling in Las Vegas, where he held platinum membership cards at Bellagio and Caesar’s Palace casinos.

Entwistle applied for mortgages and loans on a number of properties and development sites. Jonathan Gilbert, who acted as his solicitor, did not comply with his professional duties to notify the Land Registry of the legal charges already held against the properties under the other mortgages/loans. Together they also agreed to split land titles, enabling multiple loans to be acquired on the same properties thereby misleading the subsequent lenders into thinking they have greater legal rights and collateral than they did.

One house in St Mary’s Road, Ascot, was remortgaged five times for over £8m. Pomroy’s part in the fraud involving signing false accounting certificates resulting in banks approving loans on behalf of Entwistle.

The team also entered in to agreements to buy properties from unconnected homeowners, the loans were obtained but the home owners were told at the time of completion that the lenders had withdrawn their funding and they were no longer purchasing the properties. This resulted in considerable stress to the homeowners who lost their onward purchases and substantial deposits. Further loans were also obtained on these properties despite the fact they were always owned by the original homeowners.

Southwark Crown Court heard that Entwistle and Gilbert made fake loan applications to 12 different banks and other lenders between 2005 and 2009, including defrauding RBS and Northern Rock out of more than £6m. The judge described the former airline pilot as ‘arrogant and greedy, brazen to the last with no expression of remorse'.

Thames Valley Police said the investigation, which began in 2009, was among one of its longest ever.  

Entwistle was found guilty of 22 counts of conspiracy to defraud and one count of conspiracy to conceal criminal property and received a 14 year jail sentence. Pomroy was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud and jailed for three years. Gilbert received a 12 year sentence and the fourth member of the gang, a mortgage broker, was given a five year jail term.

As a result of the fraud, Wilmett Solicitors where Gilbert was employed, went into liquidation in 2009 and Gilbert was also disbarred and banned from practising as a solicitor the following year. During the investigation, it came to light that all paperwork held by Gilbert at the solicitors firm had been destroyed.

Det Supt David Poole, head of Thames Valley Police specialist operations department said: ‘Fraud is not a victimless crime. Testimony was heard in court about the stress suffered by some whose homes have been sold from underneath them, those who lost life savings and investments, and those who lost jobs.’

Pomeroy was employed at Griffin Accountants in the Thames Valley until 2011, according to the ICAEW annual membership directory.

In a written statement issued to Accountancy, the ICAEW said: ‘The Institute is aware of Mr Pomroy’s conviction. Our Disciplinary Bye-laws prevent us from discussing matters which may be under consideration by our Professional Conduct Department. Where such consideration results in disciplinary action being taken then a public announcement is made.

‘Those same Disciplinary Bye-laws provide that conviction for an indictable offence is conclusive evidence of misconduct.’