A SURVEYOR who 'acted out of pure greed' is facing jail for playing a key role in a £20million property fraud.

Frank Darlington, 60, from Pendle, was responsible for providing ‘inflated’ valuations on a string of properties across the north west and north Wales, a trial at Mold Crown Court heard.

Kelbrook-based Darlington, along with two property speculators, has been convicted of the wide-ranging scam involving bogus mortgage applications.

False claims were made in the names of the conspirators’ family and friends, and other ‘dupes’, who were completely unaware the mortgages had been taken out on their behalf.

Some of the properties were fictional and others in no way resembled the conditions claimed by the fraudsters.

The role of Darlington, of Vicarage Road, was to provide false surveyors’ reports to bolster the operation.

He had denied conspiring to defraud and conspiring to falsify documents between May 2003 and June 2008.

Property speculator Antony Lowry-Huys, 63, of Kinmel Bay, and business partner Sheila Rose Whalley, 66, of Llanfairtalhaearn, both north Wales, said to be the brains behind the fraud, were also convicted.

Trial judge Rhys Rowlands told the trio they had acted out of 'pure greed and nothing more'.

The judge said he would need pre-sentence reports on them - but that they should expect a ‘fairly significant’ prison term.

Judge Rowlands, summing up the case, said: "The essence of the case is deceiving mortgage lenders, banks, into parting with their money and lending when they would not had they known the truth."

He told jurors the deceit was achieved by inflating the actual value of the property used as security, hiding the fact that in some cases no deposit was put down or inflating the rental income potential to make the mortgage rate more acceptable.

In some cases, according to Judge Rowlands, the apartments on which mortgages were advanced simply did not exist.

He added: “Where banks make a loss, where people get away with stealing or deceiving it is you and I who pick up the tab by increased charges. It is not a victimless crime.”

Prosecutors are now expected to begin investigations under the Proceeds of Crime Act which will attempt to recoup an estimated £20million in losses.