📍 A constituent of mine discovered in November that HMRC had handed over £972 to the company MortgageSmiths, who took almost half of that in commission fees.

As he hadn’t commissioned this company in the first place, he demanded to see the application form, which was such a poor forgery that both his and his wife’s signature were clearly in the same handwriting.

With the government repeatedly warning the public not to fall for financial scams, it’s incredible that the HMRC fell for this one.

So can we have a Treasury statement, so we can understand the extent of this problem, what’s being done to prevent it in the future, and when constituents like mine will actually get their money from the HMRC.

Government response:
Well, I thank the Honourable Lady for raising this case. I’m very sorry to hear that.

She may of course wish to raise it at Treasury questions on the 9th of May.

But given this is a sizable chunk of money for them to be out of pocket with, I will certainly raise this today with HMRC and ask them to contact the Honourable Lady with regard to this case.