FSA fines director £100k for mortgage fraud

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has issued an order to ban and fine a London-based mortgage broker £100,000 for fraud, which has been referred to a tribunal for a final decision.

Raymond Wagner, the director Ambergate Business Services, has referred the matter to the Upper Tribunal where he and the FSA will present their case and the panel will decide on its next step.

The Tribunal may uphold, vary or cancel the FSA's decision.

In a decision notice dated 14 April 2011, the FSA set out its decision to ban and fine Wagner for knowingly submitting four fraudulent mortgage applications for himself, which contained inaccurate and misleading information including details of an inflated salary.

In the FSA's opinion Wagner also failed to properly supervise two of Ambergate's mortgage advisers, Neeraj Harish and Richard Fairley, resulting in them submitting mortgage applications for their own benefit through the firm with false information about their income.

Wagner's failure to put in place adequate systems and controls to monitor mortgage applications put the firm at risk of financial crime, the FSA said.

This also posed a risk to lenders and consumers as well as to confidence in the financial system.

The final notices for Harish and Fairley have also been published today announcing that the FSA took action last year to hand out full prohibitions for the two individuals.

The FSA found Harish and Fairley were not fit and proper to work in regulated financial services through failings that led to mortgage fraud.

They both failed to meet even the minimum regulatory standards, operating for several years without honesty, integrity or competence.

Tom Spender, head of retail in enforcement and financial crime, said:
"Mortgage intermediaries must adhere to our rules to ensure that consumers are treated fairly and protected from excessive risk.

"The FSA has brought over 100 enforcement cases against mortgage intermediaries since it began investigating intermediaries in the mortgage sector in mid 2005 and will continue to take tough action where we see evidence of breaches of our rules."