News & insights
New product launch: Lawyer Checker
Talk of identity theft and bogus law firms is commonplace in the news at present. With 46% of all reports of bogus firms received last year involving the identity theft of a law firm or solicitor, there is an increasing trend in vendor conveyancing fraud. The National Fraud Authority believes that there are around 1400 organised crime gangs trying to steal mortgage funds, and due diligence requires all solicitors and conveyancers to check the firm they are sending monies to.
So with this in mind, Lawyer Checker has been designed to help you reduce uncertainty in identifying the legitimacy of the vendor conveyancer. This new search will obtain information based on the account and firm details you submit, and identify if there is a track record of previous use associated with that account or whether it presents a potential risk. The search provides conveyancers with the information they need to offer peace of mind to both themselves and the client, whether borrower or lender. One of three results will be provided with regards to the account details submitted;
• Frequent – the account has a good track record of successful use and has been used by numerous other conveyancers in the past.
• Infrequent – the account is recognised by the database, but is relatively new or there have been a very small number of searches carried out against it.
• Unknown – the account details are not known and there is no track record of it being used in conveyancing transactions.
Top benefits to you and your client
- Enhance your due diligence and give yourself, your firm and your client added confidence
- Immediate response.
- All entities subject to real-time searches – further research is conducted within 4 working hours over 10 databases when a search result is infrequent or unknown.
- Identify evidence – when were the account details previously seen by the Lawyer Checker database.
- Demonstrate outcomes focussed processes – free search update before completion to ensure that details have not changed.
- Safeguard the transaction against incorrectly typed account details
- In cases where a potential risk is evident, further checks can be made to help firms better assess whether it is appropriate to send money to the account
- Reduces risk of negligence claims, increased PI insurance premiums & reputation damage
To find out more about Lawyer Checker or to arrange some in house CPD training, please call a member of the Customer Service team on 0800 009 4540 or email twps@thameswater.co.uk.
