Police say they are close to an arrest in the case of the con artist who swindled several banks out of $540,000.
The Auckland Fraud Squad is on the trail of a mystery woman, believed to be around 30 years old, who duped three banks out of $180,000 each in a sophisticated mortgage scam.
Detective Constable Blair Goudie said yesterday he was "fairly confident an arrest will be made shortly".
Despite earlier speculation the woman may have fled the country, she is believed to still be in the Auckland area.
She has been described as a presentable Pakeha woman with a New Zealand accent.
On three separate occasions the woman deceived lawyers into arranging mortgages on property she did not own. She used fake identification, including passports, bank statements, credit cards, an IRD tax number and the house title of the real home owner.
The case has raised questions about the way banks give out mortgages and has exposed weaknesses in the passport system.
The Herald on Sunday last week published bank statements showing the woman spent the first of her illegally-obtained money on Burger King takeaways.
- HERALD ON SUNDAY
Net closes on mortgage con artist
The wanted woman.
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