Fraudulent mortgage brokers slapped with £415,000 fine

City watchdog fined Alan Hill and Mark Bates of Sheffield-based Pace Financial Management for submitting false and misleading mortgage applications.

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by Alex Steger on Oct 12, 2010 at 12:11

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined Alan Hill and Mark Bates of Sheffield-based Pace Financial Management £415,000 for submitting false and misleading mortgage applications.

Bates was fined £264,683 for knowingly being involved in mortgage fraud while he was a partner at Pace. He has also been banned from working in regulated financial services.

Bates, in conjunction with an adviser at Pace, obtained a mortgage for himself using false payslips and P60s. He submitted a mortgage application for a client using false income and employment information and gave mortgage advice despite not being qualified.

Hill was fined £150,000 and banned from working in the financial services industry for his misconduct. Hill admitted to manufacturing false documentation and using this to apply for mortgages, fraudulently, for at least six clients.

The FSA has also banned Waqarul Hassan Shah of Manchester-based K S Financial Services for submitting false income figures on a buy-to-let mortgage for himself, inflating his income six-fold from £11,700 to £65,000. Shah would have been fined £40,000 had it not been for evidence that the penalty would have caused him serious financial hardship.

Margaret Cole, FSA managing director of enforcement and financial crime, said: ‘Bates, Hill and Shah all showed they were not fit to work in regulated financial services and presented a serious risk to customers and lenders alike with their reckless and unscrupulous actions.’

Hill was sentenced to five and a half years imprisonment after being convicted of five financial crime offences in February. Bates was sentenced to four years imprisonment after he was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering.

Three Pace partners were fined £50,000 by the FSA in July for failing to prevent fraud being committed.

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3 comments so far. Why not have your say?

"Shah would have been fined £40,000 had it not been for evidence that the penalty would have caused him serious financial hardship."

I thought that was the purpose of a fine. If you can pay a fine easily its hardly a deterent.

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Toothless FSA. The bloke SHOULD have suffered serious fiancial hardship. Serve him right good and proper.

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Anonymous 1 needed this 'off the record'

Oct 12, 2010 at 19:10

So we have heard of two people being fined and or inprisoned. Isnt this the tip of the iceberg. Hpow many are there out there who have done the same, but have slipped under theradar??

FSA go hunting and you will find. LLOyds have the right idea, checking who can repay their mortages.

Hunt them all down. They are jsut as much to blame as the banks. When the interest rates start heading north, . AS they will default, and cause another housing crisis.

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