Solicitors and mortgage brokers are now the two professions at the forefront of fraud, a fraud management firm has warned.

Lenders and building societies are being urged to improve the internal systems that help them detect potential mortgage application fraud after regulators revealed the number of professional advisers accused of being involved in this crime has risen by more than 450%.

In 2009, more than £750 million was illegally lent to third parties as a result of professional mortgage application fraud, according to figures released by the Financial Services Authority, The Solicitors Regulation Authority, The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

More than individual 750 complaints were made to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) against lawyers between 2008 and 2009. In 2005, only 85 fraud complaints were made to the SRA.

Angus Stewart, chief executive of e-solutions, said: “There has been a huge increase in the number of professional people who are now collaborating in a bid to defraud lenders.