Jail for surveyor in £3m evaluation con

A chartered surveyor from Staffordshire who inflated the value of a sprawling manor house to dupe a bank into handing over a £3 million mortgage has been jailed for two years.

Christopher Jarvis, aged 66, from Longdon, near Rugeley, dreamed up the valuation for financier Paul Cope, a former Stafford Rangers sponsor who owned Barn Bank Manor in Hyde Lea, Stafford.

The 11-bedroom property, described as "one of the best in Stafford", was valued at £4.25m by Jarvis in order for Cope, who ran Stafford-based Kingdom Finance Ltd, to secure a huge mortgage.

But suspicious bosses at Yorkshire Bank and police, who were investigating Cope for another fraud, enlisted other surveyors to value the house and the best price they came up with was £1.3m.

The valuation report by Jarvis described the property as a "large detached country manor, significantly extended in the modern manner, set in 19 acres".

Listed features included a detached lodge residence, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, landscaped gardens, gymnasium and solarium.

An investigation by Dc Mark Kelsall of Staffordshire Police's Economic Crime Unit found that Jarvis had inflated the value of the property "which was actually worth around £1.2m" by 300 per cent. Cope and Jarvis were arrested and charged with making a misrepresentation to Yorkshire Bank.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors then suspended Jarvis pending the outcome of the case. Cope, 45, admitted the fraud at Stafford Crown Court in June 2010 and was sentenced to four years in jail.

Jarvis denied the charge but was found guilty following a trial at Shrewsbury Crown Court. He was sentenced to two years in prison at the same court yesterday.