FSA bans four more brokers for mortgage fraud
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The Financial Services Authority has banned four mortgage intermediaries and imposed fines totalling £450,000 for knowingly using misleading and inaccurate information to secure mortgages.
Joseph Chinedu Nwosu, the founder, sole shareholder and sole director of Gemmini Mortgages Ltd, was fined £200,000 and banned from working in financial services for attempting 14 cases of mortgage fraud over a period of 26 months.
Nwosu obtained five regulated residential mortgages and one unregulated buy-to-let mortgage using inaccurate and misleading personal information. The financial penalty imposed on Nwosu is one of the largest to be imposed on an individual for such misconduct.
Gemmini’s permission to conduct regulated activities has been cancelled. Jageet Kaur, who was a mortgage advisor employed by Gemmini, has also been banned from working in financial services for having knowingly submitted five false and misleading personal mortgage applications.
Alaba Adewale Adebajo, director of Whitehouse Estate Agents and Financial Services Ltd, has been banned from working in financial services and fined £150,000.
Adebajo, who committed five cases of mortgage fraud and failed to keep sufficient client records, was one of the two directors of Whitehouse, the only approved person at the firm, and the owner of 100% of the share capital. As a result the FSA has also cancelled the permission of Whitehouse to carry on regulated activities.
Alistair Curren of B-Assured Financial was fined £100,000 and banned from working in financial services. Curren submitted fraudulent mortgage applications, failed to declare income to HMRC and failed to comply with specific requirements imposed on him by the FSA aimed at ensuring that risks to customers posed by him were addressed.
The Upper Tribunal upheld both the ban and the fine against Curren. In its published judgment the Upper Tribunal recognised the risk posed by mortgage brokers involved in mortgage fraud:
“The submission to lending institutions of dishonest mortgage applications is, in our view, a very serious matter. Persons in Mr Curren’s position earn commission in return for carrying out enquiries into the veracity of what is said in the application, and lending institutions should be able to rely with confidence on their having done so.”
Tracey McDermott, FSA acting director of enforcement and financial crime, says:“These four mortgage brokers were caught and punished for their involvement in mortgage fraud. As part of our credible deterrence agenda we remain active in the area of tackling mortgage fraud, and others in the industry who act in this way will continue to face tough sanctions.
“The Tribunal’s judgment on Curren sends an important message to others in the industry about how seriously this sort of behaviour will be taken.”
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Readers' comments (6)
Anonymous | 19 Apr 2011 11:27 am
Good to see rogues getting booted out of industry I d like to see the FSA deal with branch mortgage sellers(clealry not advisers) in high street banks handing out fast track mortgage offers to customers who have previously seen Independent Advisers who have advised them that they do not have sufficient income / affordability proof but high street sellers fast tracking low ltv cases without taking sufficeint income checks
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Anonymous | 19 Apr 2011 11:37 am
This is the right out come, but why has Andy Hornsby(HBOS) been able to walk away scot free. He knew what his company was doing but he gets no fine. Easy to fine the small guys and not the big ones. FSA have a good look at yourself.
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Anonymous | 19 Apr 2011 12:20 pm
Good Riddance - it's idiots like these who make things harder for those who carry out the role to its correct standards, also if the so called clients were also aware then shame on them
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Anonymous | 19 Apr 2011 4:40 pm
what about the negligence of the FSA in appointing such "fit persons" in the first place.
Time and time again we come across such failures by the FSA.
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Anonymous | 21 Apr 2011 1:24 pm
And yet in my role, time and time again I come across negligent and/or complicit brokers.
Whilst you can give an informed opinion on your own behaviour, do not presume to speak for others in your profession.
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Mr. Charles Brown | 12 Jul 2011 6:05 am
FSA must be a very "Racist" institution.
Why is it that majority of the "so called baned brokers" have ethnic minority name?
Credible deteraance .... what a joke! Are the British people so naive to believe the mortgage brokers are in any way to blame for the "Financial collapse" of the United Kingdom?
Where is the FSA's so called credible deterrence when "Investment Bankers created and sold the "Ponzy Schemes" called CDO (Collactaral Debt Obligation) to mentaly retarded bank managers in United Kingdom that turned out to worth less than the paper it was written on, which actually contributed imensely in bringing down the United Kingdom economy?
Where are the credible deterrence of the FSA now that the same sacred cows "Investment Bankers" they are terrified of and hope to go and work for the moment the British people get smart and find out how incompetent and corrupt they are and scrap their useless office space at Canary Wharf, are selling another "Ponzi Scheme" called "Credit Default Swap" which is simply an insurance against another "Ponzi Scheme" sold by the same "Investment Bankers" called "Bond".
The FSA must really believe that the British People are either "astoningshingly stupid" or "ireversably retarded".
It's a well documented fact in Europe that in anytime of adversity, the governments incite hatred and zenophobia in their country in order to scapegoat the minority and most vulnerable in their country.
Please, do not fall for this old tired tricks used by the FSA to scapegoat the minority brokers.
Ask your self one simple question, why is it only the FSA and Briton among all the G20 member states that shamelessly blame mortgage brokers for their "Financial woes"?
What a travesty of justice.
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