My mum got a call at home the other night and the display on her phone said my work number but when she answered it was one of these recorded message sales ones asking if she was in arrears with her mortgage and if so please call this number for their help.
She done 1471 and once again it said this call had originated from my work, which I doubt is correct.

She is with Telewest and is ex directory, my work is with BT.

Anybody have any ideas on what happened here?

My main concern is that in the past few months I have applied for a mortgage, and the nature of the call was about mortgages, also I would have provided my work and mums details on the application, just a coincidence?

Sounds like they're spoofing their outgoing caller i.d to make it look like it's your work number calling. Some VOIP services allow you to choose your outgoing caller i.d. Why they would want to do this is anyone's guess

So that the person receiving the call picks it up?

If it's from a recognised number they may pick it up rather than ignoring it.

Pretty sleazy way to do business, though.