Challinors partners with QuestGates

Accredited by Teesside University, the course is designed to provide senior representatives within financial institutions serving the mortgage market with a blend of theory and practical skills in the specialist field of financial crime investigation. Challinors’ fraud lawyers believe the course will have a direct effect on reducing banks and building societies’ losses from mortgage fraud and assist them in dealing with fraud prevention and earlier recovery arising from mortgage fraud.

“Challinors has been monitoring the mortgage fraud developments nationally for some time,” explained partner and joint head of the firm’s specialist fraud & asset recovery department, Arun Chauhan. “The incidence of mortgage fraud is on the rise, a growth that has hit an all-time high in the UK and worldwide in the last three years, with a particularly dramatic increase in the incidence of large scale mortgage fraud.

“Historically, many lenders were simply taking too many risks, exposing themselves to potential mortgage fraud and consequential losses. We feel there is a pressing need to give financial institutions practical guidance on minimising their exposure to risk as well as providing them with guidance as to the increased regulation they face.

“The course is a very positive step forward in achieving this, whilst at the same time giving individuals with responsibility for risk management, crime and regulation or risk investigation, the unique opportunity to acquire and expand their focused knowledge of how financial institutions can reduce exposure to mortgage fraud and in turn, its impact.”

The Mortgage Fraud Technician course programme is designed to ensure students are aware of the issues and procedures relating to fraud and its investigation, with its syllabus focused on the particular field of financial crime. Successful students will be awarded a University Certificate in Continuing Education, which carries 10 Level 1 Higher Education Credits as part of CPD.

Split into three modules, delivered over two months, the course is delivered by an Accredited Counter Fraud Trainer, Andrew Whittaker from QuestGates together with expert input from Challinors’ fraud lawyers Arun Chauhan and Mark Kenkre. The course will cover matters including civil and criminal perspectives on fraud, fraud investigation management, intelligence and evidence, human rights and PACE, investigative reporting and evidential packages.

The course modules will run in October and November 2010 at Challinors Birmingham offices on Newhall Street. For more information, contact Challinors, Tel: 0121 212 9393, email: [email protected].