custodial sentence for obtaining a money transfer by deception?

[sally35]

My husband has been charged with the above & is due to be sentenced next week at crown court. He lied about his income to get our mortgage (£360.000) he has been told to expect 2 yrs custodial sentence. He has no previous & is 36 with 2 kids. He's never failed a payment & I am terrified of managing without him as I suffer from mental health issues. Just wanted to know if there is any hope of a suspended which his probation officer has recommended. Any advice appreciated.

[bednobs]

his legal rep will be able to tell him, having the benefit of ALL the facts

[sally35]

Well that is what he has been told by his barrister, but I'm hoping he just thinks its better to expect the worst & that there may be a chance....

[bednobs]

well, it wont make any difference to the sentance what anyone says on here i'm afraid

[Buenchico]

There are two points worthy of consideration here. Firstly barristers spend a great deal of time in court (and know much of what goes on in other court rooms), so your husband's barrister may well be right in his estimate of the sentence.

Secondly however, probation staff never recommend sentences which they believe to be totally impossible. (e.g. they won't recommend a non-custodial sentence for multiple rape and they won't recommend a lengthy custodial sentence for a first-time offender nicking a Mars bar). The probation officer who recommended a suspended sentence must believe (based upon his/her knowledge of the way that the courts work) that such a thing is possible.

If the barrister is any good at his job he will stress to the court that your husband's falsehood was not an attempt to obtain any money which he did not intend to pay back. He should make it clear that, at the time of the application, your husband fully intended that the mortgage payments would be met, so that there would be no real 'victim' of his offence.

Also, if he's any good at his job (and you're prepared to have your mental health issues revealed in public), he'll accept a report from your doctor about your problems and ask the court to take that report into consideration when passing sentence.

Chris

[sally35]

Many thanks

[ummmm]

Can I ask? How did he get caught?

[sally35]

Basically, he did business with someone that the police believed to have something to do with money laundering & he got arrested. The searched my house while he was in custody & took him to court on the charge of doing business with someone he knew was up to no good or was suspicious, of which he had no idea. They went through all his accounts etc & found the mortgage fraud, so nailed him for that. The other charge was thrown out by the way. Our lives have been in complete turmoil for the last 2 years & we are about to lose our home. He is being sentenced on friday.

[ummmm]

So he basically just lied on the mortgage forms/interview?

[sally35]

Exactly

[ummmm]

I'd find it hard to believe that he'd go to prison for that...

What have the mortgage people said?

[sally35]

Also he had no idea that he was commiting a serious crime. It was his financial advisor who said ' this is what you need to do ' & sign here. All he asked was, was my husband sure he could make the payments.

[sally35]

The mortgage people apparently not interested as long as he was paying, but its the cps that have taken it to court