Five people who raked in £50m with 1,000 fraudulent mortgage applications are jailed Ex-officer Antony Lowry-Huws, 65, from north Wales, jailed for seven years His wife Susan Lowry-Huws, 60, gets 12 months suspended for two years Sheila Whalley, Nicholas Jones and Frank Darlington also sent to prison Complex scheme involved mortgages against properties that didn't exist System also included fraudulent paperwork claiming to show rent incomes A former police officer led a gang of five - including his wife - in the biggest mortgage fraud ever seen in England and Wales, it emerged tonight. The scheme involved some mortgages against properties that did not exist, as well as the use of false property valuations and fraudulent paperwork claiming to show rent incomes and deposits. Antony Lowry-Huws, 65, from Kinmel Bay, north Wales - the 'ringleader' - was jailed for seven years for leading the £50million fraud that involved more than 1,000 bogus mortgage applications. Fraudsters: Antony Lowry-Huws (left), 65, from Kinmel Bay, north Wales, the 'ringleader', was jailed for seven years, and his business partner Sheila Whalley (right) was given 12 months suspended for two years His wife Susan Lowry-Huws, 60, also from Kinmel Bay, was given 12 months suspended for two years and 300 hours" community service. And his business partner Sheila Whalley, from Llanfair Talhaiarn, north Wales, was jailed for six years, the Crown Prosecution Service said. Solicitor Nicholas Jones, 54, of Leeswood, Flintshire, and surveyor Frank Darlington, 62, of Barnoldswick, Lancashire, were each given four years. Elspeth Pringle, specialist fraud prosecutor at the CPS, said: "The scale, duration and sophistication of this fraudulent scheme are a demonstration of criminal behaviour at its most devious. The actions of the five members of this mortgage fraud ring were motivated by nothing more than greed, and their willingness to betray the trust of mortgage lenders for personal profit seemed to have no limits. Behind bars: Solicitor Nicholas Jones (left), 54, of Leeswood, Flintshire, and surveyor Frank Darlington (right), 62, of Barnoldswick, Lancashire, were each given four years Each of the co-conspirators sentenced today had their own specific role to play in this intricate crime, and all were fully aware of the deceitfulness of their actions. The scale, duration and sophistication of this fraudulent scheme are a demonstration of criminal behaviour at its most devious Elspeth Pringle, CPS Each of the five defendants was convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud in relation to 189 fraudulent mortgage applications made between May 2003 and June 2008 - a representative sample of the total number of bogus applications made. Detective Chief Inspector Iestyn Davies from North Wales Police said: "Operation Valgus is reportedly the largest mortgage fraud ever investigated in England and Wales. It is the largest fraud ever to be investigated by North Wales Police by a considerable margin in terms of value, complexity and substantiality. We welcome the sentences imposed today in relation this multi-million pound investigation which took five years of painstaking investigation to reach this successful conclusion.