chelsea cutsits deficit

The mutual reported a pre-tax loss of 27.1m for 2009, compared to a loss of 39.3m in 2008.

It had already reported a 26.3m loss at the half-year stage.

During the second half of 2009 Chelsea has been investigating a number of suspected buy-to-let fraud cases.

But it said a significant number of cases show no evidence of fraud.

This resulted in the one-off charge, which reflected a writedown in the value of properties in its buy-to-let portfolio that had been fraudulently inflated, being reduced from 41m at the half year to 32.6m.