FSA dishes out fines of £179,000 in a week as its war on fraud goes on
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The Financial Services Authority handed out fines totalling more than £179,000 last week, as it continues its fight against mortgage fraud.
The regulator banned six brokers and fined four for failings relating to mortgage fraud. These actions bring the total number of intermediaries banned to 91.
Three of the individuals banned worked for one firm - Neale Morton IMS Ltd based in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.
Neale Morton was principal and director of the firm. The FSA has prohibited him from trading and fined him £130,192 for his knowing involvement in fraud, as well as systems and controls failings for which he was personally culpable.
Part of the fine, £5,192, represents a disgorgement of the profit he made from fraudulent applications.
Morton not only submitted applications for himself using false income details but also allowed his firm to be used for mortgage fraud by advisers and customers.
Two advisers at the company, Jonathan Smith and Syed Meah, have also been banned. Both produced falsified compliance documents during the FSA probe.
Meanwhile, broker Monika Tewari has been banned by the FSA for her involvement in mortgage fraud along with Amanakwaa Adu, trading as Distinct Financial Services in Leytonstone, east London.
Tony Oliver, trading as Finesse Financial in Barking, Essex has also been banned from trading.
And the regulator has fined three partners at Pace Financial Management in Sheffield for failures that led to the company being used for financial crime.
Paul Armitage and Huw Evans were fined £17,500 each and Brian Smith was fined £14,000 for failing to have appropriate systems and controls. The FSA found the three failed to effectively supervise other partners at the company.
Margaret Cole, director of en-forcement and financial crime at the FSA, says: “By lacking essential systems and controls Pace put itself at risk of financial crime, and this was taken advantage of.”
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