The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Home loan scams on the rise

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Thursday, Sep 21, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Home loan scams on the rise

L. Srikrishna

80 complaints taken up for investigation so far

CHENNAI : The trend of presenting forged documents and taking home loans from banks appears to be steadily rising in the city. Over Rs. 100 crore has allegedly been siphoned off, going by 80 complaints taken up for investigation so far this year by the City Crime Branch (CCB) police.

The trends shows that the white-collar crime is being done by gangs suspected to have "strong" links with various government agencies and with "the connivance of some bankers," feel the investigators.

Speaking to The Hindu , CCB officers handling different cases pertaining to bank frauds said the crime rate in this respect had certainly risen.

In this year alone, "we have examined 80 petitions received from various banks. The total money withdrawn through such channels is expected to be over Rs.100 crore."

As the complaints pertained to different financial years, the exact loss for each bank could not be ascertained immediately. Similarly, whether they were cases of oversight or negligence by bank staff or whether there was any collusion remained to be probed by the respective banks internally.

Recently, the CCB officers came across a "novel" way of cheating banks.

Explaining the modus operandi, an officer noted that five members of a gang purchased a flat each from a builder in the city two or three years ago, each taking a bank loan ranging between Rs. 15 lakh and Rs. 20 lakh.

Once they made payments to the builder through the bank, the registration was completed and the documents were deposited in the bank.

Till this point, the procedure was followed as per law. There was no case of any forgery committed by the gang, the officer said.

Subsequently, it came to light that the gang resorted to cheating when it approached other banks for loans, producing forged title deeds of their flats.

By simply claiming to have purchased a new flat, the gang members submitted independent proposals to the second banker along with papers.

Once the loan was approved, the banker issued a cheque in the name of the builder in which name the gang had opened a fictitious account.

Thus after the cheque was realised, the gang withdrew money in a phased manner. In a bid to ensure that the racket was kept under the carpet, the gang members repaid the monthly instalments regularly for about six to nine months in their home loan accounts.

Recently, the CCB police arrested one member of the gang and also identified its associates.

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