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Speaking exclusively to Mortgage Adviser, Detective Superintendent Bob Wishart of the City of London Police economic crime department, said his division was investigating more cases now than this same time last year.

Following on from comments made by Jonathan Phelan, head of retail enforcement for the FSA, that the reluctance of mortgage fraud victims to go to court made it hard for the police to prosecute corrupt brokers, DS Wishart said his officers were alerted by many different sources.

Describing the escalation in mortgage fraud as "a sudden influx" DS Wishart said his officers liaised with the FSA, Council of Mortgage Lenders, the British Bankers Association, while surveyors and advisers were monitoring their respective communities.

He said: "All the interested parties have got an increased awareness and are bringing it to our attention."

DS Wishart also denied there was a reluctance from banks to highlight problems with fraud. He said the lenders he had been in contact with "had been more than happy" to report the crime.

He said: "I certainly would not want to be critical of the banks. They make their judgement calls on the nature of the criminality they uncover and the decision whether they come to us.

"We want to get a true picture of what is really happening and part of the process is reporting to us."

DS Wishart's comments came as auditor KPMG revealed there were nine cases of mortgage fraud worth more than £20m committed in the first half of this year, compared with just 10 cases worth £3.7m for the whole of 2007.

In June the Serious Organised Crime Agency highlighted the increased use of mortgage fraud to generate and launder criminal funds when it published its Threat Assessment of Serious Organised Crime for 2008 to 2009.

DS Wishart also said mortgage fraud was now being seen as equally of high importance as other strands of financial crime but he was unable to say exactly how many current investigations were ongoing.

He said: "We do not number crunch in that respect but we are looking at a number of different types of criminality linked to mortgage fraud."

Richard Fox, chief executive of the Society of Mortgage Professionals, said advisers had a responsibility to report any suspicious activity.

He said: "In order to protect the reputation of the industry and their own businesses it is very important they do what has to be done in order to get those people out of the business."