Member Article

What is the Fraudster planning?

With Watson Burton LLP Law FirmIf you are a home owner, company or property developer and you are intending to apply for planning permission, there may be some unexpected pitfalls you should be aware of. Having your planning application rejected may be the least of your worries! The UK’s fraud prevention service, CIFAS, has exposed one of the easiest ways for a criminal to steal people’s identities, and all the information is unknowingly volunteered by the victims themselves. Local authorities are publishing sufficient personal details from planning permission applications to enable fraudsters to steal their identity without the need to look any further. A credit monitoring service warned that people who own buy-to-let properties are one of the groups that are most at risk from identity theft. CreditExpert.co.uk. said the risk was greater for landlords who were renting out property in which they themselves had lived previously. In some of these incidences, fraudulent tenants used the name and address of their landlord in order to apply for credit cards and/or loans. Another common method is to steal the identities of people who had previously lived in houses that are now vacant and up for sale. But Chris Kendall, director of the government’s Planning Portal, which provides resources to local authorities, says there are already guidelines about what data should be made available:’Clearly there are issues, but the only difference between the web and offline is 24/7 availability and that it is available from wherever you are. There is clear guidance to local authorities…this data has always been published and people can view it over the counter because as a citizen you have the right to object to planning applications.’If you have any queries in relation to this article or any other fraud related matter, please contact Clare Fegan at Watson Burton LLP (clare.fegan@watsonburton.com).

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .