Lock explains: "This role will either be entirely fictitious, or a temporary job given by a friend while they apply for the mortgage, and then they revert back to their original role.
"For example, they might have been working as a retail shop assistant with an income of £25,000 a year, and then present payslips for a new role started three months prior to application as a senior IT manager on £50,000."
Hollingworth says there is often an issue around scheme abuse, which is another area that could need further questioning. He says: "That may come as a result of a change of story about how the property will be used or evidence of rental payments on a bank statement that require further explanation."
Just Mortgages also warns against the "little bit of truth". One example was a client working in a school, who altered all documents and her earnings to pretend to be a teacher, rather than a teaching assistant.
Phillips adds: "We have also seen examples of dodgy introducers or where friends, family or close contacts have tried to take advantage of brokers.
“It’s important we highlight that it is not just a real threat to lenders, but also it can have significant and devastating consequences for brokers.
"Whether it’s clients just trying to push their luck or an ever-increasing ability to actively try and commit fraud, brokers are at greater risk of falling foul without the right safeguards or support in place.”
Scale of the problem
According to research carried out earlier this year by fraud prevention service Cifas, one in six (16 per cent) of UK adults have admitted that they, or someone they know, have misled mortgage companies about their annual salary in order to purchase their dream home.
In a survey of 2,000 British adults, Cifas found individuals were still prepared to dishonestly inflate their earnings by as much as £10,000, and even forge payslips, to get the keys to their new home.
Some 14 per cent did not think it was illegal to provide mortgage lenders with misleading information.
This research backed up statistics from UK Finance in 2023, which found mortgage fraud in England & Wales had increased by 32.8 per cent.
Thankfully, the Building Societies Association has found that there has been no "recent" spike in levels, and no organised crime, although awareness and vigilance is ever-high.
Elaine Morton, head of legal, conduct risk and financial crime at the BSA, says: "Ongoing mortgage fraud training is the norm within the sector, and is included in the BSA mortgage underwriting training course.
