Mortgage provider criticises FSA over fraud

A mortgage provider has criticised the FSA for not doing enough to curb mortgage fraud. He claimed that police enforcement in the mortgage industry highlighted the failure of industry regulators to combat fraud:

“The appointment of a further fifty specialists by City police to focus on mortgage fraud is a poor reflection on us as an industry and how we identify fraud."

FSA bans brokers, wants lenders to report frauds

The FSA want lenders to blow the whistle on rogue brokers as they try to stamp out mortgage fraud.

They have banned two partners of an Essex-based mortgage firm for involvement in submitting false mortgage applications to lenders.

The regulator found Amjad Malik and Tahir Mahmood, of Abbaci Associates, submitted applications on behalf of clients which contained false information relating to the clients' incomes and occupations.

More news on mortgage fraud is expected in the next few days.

OFT bans Birmingham estate agent

The OFT has made a prohibition order against a Birmingham estate agent banning him from estate agency work.

Shazad Jahan, a partner of 'Saints Estates & Mortgages' in Kemp Road, Birmingham, has been convicted of offences involving fraud or other dishonesty as referred to in the Estate Agents Act, and therefore considered by the OFT to be unfit to carry out estate agency work.

Unauthorised stockbroker imprisoned

An unauthorised stockbroker has been given 15 months imprisonment for offences of dishonesty including theft, following a prosecution brought by the FSA.
Mr William Anthony 'Robin' Radclyffe, of Salisbury, was sentenced on February 11 at London's Central Criminal Court.

William Anthony 'Robin' Radclyffe, of Salisbury, pleaded guilty to 15 offences, with a further 34 taken into consideration. He has also been disqualified from being a company director for five years, which seems a short time.

From 1997 to 2004, acting as an unauthorised broker, the FSA says that he made false and misleading statements to his clients about both the management and profit made by an illegal collective investment scheme that he was operating. He also stole an investment portfolio valued at almost £100,000 and dishonestly failed to return £20,000 he owed to his former partner, who also invested in his scheme.

Radclyffe defrauded a number of investors, the majority of them friends. Losses attributed to Mr Radclyffe total more than £350,000.

Mr Radclyffe was not an authorised stockbroker. So his clients will not have access to the Financial Ombudsman Services or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Don't entrust your money to someone not officially authorised, however well you think you know them.

200 mortgage brokers in fraud probe

That's the report from Mortgage Strategy. The FSA say

We are actively in the business of taking brokers out of the system where there is evidence of fraudulent dealings.

The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries say

200 brokers represent about 0.66% of the mortgage intermediary community, so that means that 99.4% are doing right by their client.

That said, we applaud the FSA for driving the bad apples out of the marketplace.

Which doesn't follow at all! The FSA could just be starting with 200.