Prison sentences totalling five years have been handed down to fraudsters who managed to obtain 16 illegal mortgages to build a criminal property portfolio worth in excess of £2 million, reported the Echo.

Taking place over a period of ten years, Bonnita Read and her son Niki Wood deliberately submitted multiple fraudulent mortgage applications to obtain properties in areas of Essex, including Woodford Green, Chigwell and Leigh-onSea.

Following a four-week trial, a jury at Blackfriars Crown Court found Read and Wood guilty of 12 and four counts of obtaining money by deception respectively.

Read was sentenced to three years in prison and Wood was jailed for two years.

On Friday, April 5th at Blackfriars Crown Court, HHJ Richardson said that Bonnita Read was “canny and too clever by half" and her evidence came across as "very astute”.

Regarding Niki Wood’s involvement in the case, HHJ Richardson remarked that he was of the clear opinion that he was not "led by the nose”.

SOCA’s investigation found that Bonnita Read submitted her first fraudulent applications in the late 1990s to purchase houses in London.

Using the self-certification mortgage system, they were able to falsify incomes, employment details, National Insurance numbers and references.

Clearly believing that their system was flawless, Bonnita Read introduced her son Niki Wood into the family ‘business’.

Between 1998 and 2008, the mother and son used the sham mortgage applications to acquire 12 houses, ranging in value from £60,000 to £375,000.

Some of the properties were bought and sold for a profit, while others were purchased for the buy-to-let market.

In 2004, Niki Wood purchased a house worth over £550,000 in Chigwell near Epping Forest and in his mortgage application he falsely submitted that he earned an income of £144,800.

Records show the property was purchased for rent; between October 2008 and February 2009 he received a rental income of almost £25,500.

When Read and Wood were arrested in May 2009 they owned seven houses.