Ashdown Lyons surveyor jailed for six years for taking £1m

Rathie, received £900,000 in cash plus a £143,000 Bentley Continental and £49,000 Range Rover Sport.

Fradulent valuations made by Rathie led the Bank of Scotland to pay out £10m in mortgages on five properties in Cheyne Walk, Cadogan Gardens, Chester Mews, Canary Wharf and Pimlico.

The fraudster who paid her and pulled off the mortgage frauds under the false name of Joanne Pier has since disappeared.

Rathie was found guilty of five counts of fraud and of concealing criminal property in 2007 and 2009.

Since 2007, Rathie provided dozens of valuations to Joanne Pier. She valued the Cheyne Walk house as £6m after refurbishment and with a rental value of £270,000 a year. But an independent surveyors said the true values were £3.5m if refurbished with a rental value of £180,000 per year.

The property at Cadogan Square, valued at £3.2m, was only worth £1.5m.

Judge Timothy Pontius said to Rathie: “It's nothing short of a tragedy for a woman of your intelligence, qualifications and many years of exemplary hard work to appear in the dock convicted of crimes of very serious dishonesty.

“But they reflect an abuse of professional integrity and also a shocking level of greed. It is naive in the extreme to expect anyone to believe that you thought they were gifts from a very wealthy and generous woman with no strings attached.”