Regulator bans east London broker
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The Financial Services Authority has banned an east London mortgage broker for submitting false and misleading income details in mortgage and loan applications.
Ayodele Olubunmi Thomas, an approved person and director of Atom Associates, submitted the applications through his brokerage and also conducted business under the trading name Divine Mortgages.
Between July 2005 and October 2007 Thomas submitted three mortgage applications and one loan application in which he declared his in - come as £85,000 in 2005 and £137,066 in 2007. But tax records held by Revenue & Customs show that for the tax year to 2005 Thomas’ earnings were £11,428, while for the tax year to 2007 his income was £42,338.
Thomas told the FSA his income was genuine, with some earnings coming from overseas investments. But the regulator says Thomas failed to provide reliable evidence of this.
He was also found to have submitted a fraudulent mortgage application for his wife. The FSA concluded that Thomas was not fit to work in regulated financial services.
Margaret Cole, director of enforcement and financial crime at the FSA, says: “We are determined to remove any approved persons found to be making fraudulent applications from the sector. Thomas’ representations about his income were at best unreliable. In his applications he decided to rely on irregular and unaccountable income from overseas.
“It was plain to see he misled lenders about the sources and amount of his income.”
Thomas has been stripped of his individual approval and banned from performing functions in authorised firms.
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