AN unlicensed mortgage advisor who claimed to be a lord to impress people has been jailed for orchestrating a £2.25m fraud.

Michael Ian Robinson signed correspondence as Lord Robinson, changed his passport and opened a bank account with the title in a bid to elevate his reputation.

In reality, the father-of-five, of Webb Avenue, Murton, east Durham, had 51 previous offences of dishonesty and was struggling to find work in the mortgage industry.

Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday how the “Walter Mitty character” instead enlisted industry contacts and Freemasons to carry out six high-value mortgage frauds.

Nine defendants from Birmingham, the South and the North-East were yesterday jailed for a total of 23 years and nine months in what Judge Michael Taylor described as a “spider’s web” with Robinson in the middle.

Working from an office in Houghton-le-Spring, Robinson, 66, opened four bank accounts, in his own name, which were used in the scam.

Mark Guiliani, prosecuting, said the frauds were carried out using unencumbered, or mortgage free, properties found on the Land Registry.

The genuine identities of the owner and buyer were adopted to obtain a mortgage that was then dissipated, by Robinson, to several people.

In April 2008, the Bank of Ireland approved £525,699 believing it was for Aymeric Charles Badoy, a wealthy French banker in London, to buy a house in Gloucester.

Mr Guiliani said: “They used Mr Badoy’s identity because they thought he wouldn’t notice a few thousand [in mortgage repayments] going out of his bank account. In fact, he noticed straight away.”

Documentation purporting to be from the vendor also turned out to be forged.

Between 2007 and 2008, Robinson and his team made applications for £2,200,397 on five properties in the Midlands and the South-East of which £1,1775,649 was paid out.

Mr Guiliani said: “To date £1,295,804 of that money has not been recovered.”

Rashad Mohammed, for Robinson, said his client had been enticed, by others, to commit the mortgage frauds.

Robinson admitted conspiracy to commit fraud, conspiracy to convert criminal property, two counts of making false representations and a breach of a court order.

John Thomas Cairns, 37, of Glenshield Close, Washington, was sentenced to two years in prison yesterday after he was convicted of conspiracy to convert £330,000 of criminal property through a computer shop in Hetton-le-Hole.

David Karim, 60, of Warnham Avenue, Sunderland, who claimed £30,000 he received from Robinson was for supplying him cars, got 15 months after admitting conspiracy to convert criminal property.