A court has heard how a surveyor provided inflated valuations on mortgage applications as part of a property scam worth at least £1 million.

Frank Edward Darlington, 60, has gone on trial along with a solicitor, two property speculators, a financial adviser and another surveyor, reported the Lancashire Telegraph.

A jury heard that the scale and extent of the fraud was difficult to envisage, but it included houses, flats and apartments.

The properties, some of which were fictional, non-existent or existed in a different form than claimed by the defendants, were in North Wales, Cheshire and the North West.

Prosecutors said bogus applications for mortgages were made in the names of friends, relatives and others who were used as ‘dupes’ and totally unaware that mortgages had been taken out on their behalf.

Darlington, of Vicarage Road, Kelbrook, and the other defendants deny conspiring to defraud and conspiring to falsify documents - including mortgage applications, statements of income, letters in support of applications and other documents - between May 2003 and June 2008.

Property speculators Antony Lowry-Huws, 63, and his business partner Sheila Rose Whalley, 66, are said to be the driving forces behind the plot.

Huws’ wife Susan Margaret Lowry-Huws, 59, was also alleged to have been involved in individual transactions.

Darlington and valuer George Walker, 58, are said to have provided inflated valuations for the mortgage applications.

Solicitor Nicholas John Jones, 53, is said to have carried out the necessary conveyancing work for the transactions to take place.

An accountant, Michael Georgieff Jones, has been accused of providing much of the finance required but he is too ill to stand trial.

Prosecutor Patrick Harrington QC told Mold Crown Court that the scheme began on a modest scale but grew in size and scale.

The defendants would obtain sufficient funding to clear any bridging loan, pay for the freehold and for there to be a considerable excess which they would then divide among the conspirators.

Mr Harrington said that it all came to light in December 2007 when a woman was concerned about a mortgage application which had been made in her son’s name.

An investigation was set up by the Bradford and Bingley Bank, whose officials later called in the police.

They discovered a mortgage fraud which had been carried out by the defendants, and others, over a period of some years, Mr Harrington alleged.

Property speculators Lowry-Huws and Whalley are said to have been able to obtain buy-to-let mortgages on a host of properties because Darlington and Walker were willing to overvalue homes.

Darlington and Walker are alleged to have been told what valuation to give, and what the rental income should be, the court heard.

Initially mortgages were taken out in their own names but as the alleged fraud became wider, the court heard, they used the names of family members and others.

The trial, before Judge Rhys Rowlands, is expected to last four months.