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I was aware of, if not the same matter as mentioned below, one in identical terms where an imposter changed their name by deed poll, and obtained all the genuine ID necessary (including a passport) to sell someone else's property. I posted about it when the Dreamvar case was decided at first instance and suggested that the Land Registry could, over a period of time, assemble a database of owners' ID. It would be kept offline so that no one could access it, but the Land Registry would then offer a service where a conveyancer could send his (seller) client's ID to them and they could confirm it was the same person they had on their database. It would involve someone having to do a comparison at the Land Registry, and would command a reasonable fee. The downside is that it would take ages to build up a sufficiently large database, and that if someone owned a property for many many years it might be difficult to tell if a current photograph matched a photograph from when the property was purchased. Meanwhile it is a nightmare. I repeat another suggestion I made earlier. Put a clause in your terms of business when acting for a buyer "We are unable to meet with or verify the identity of the seller. It is your responsibility to satisfy yourself that they are the person they claim to be. Upon completion we will act on your instructions and send the purchase funds to that persons solicitors, and will not liable to you if it subsequently transpires that the purported seller was not the true owner of the property". This will not work against a mortgagee, but may help defeat the breach of trust argument run by the buyer. Today we have received a demand from a buyer's solicitors that we confirm the identity of our client to them and provide them with our client's ID. My immediate reaction is "Data Protection" but if our client consents, and the buyer's solicitors salsify themselves, does that let us off the hook if our client is an imposter? Not that they are. They are the same person who bought the property.
Are we going to be inundated with such requests? What is the position to take? What has the law Society got to say about such matters? How do the online bucket shop conveyancers deal wit the problem?