The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has agreed to waive an £80,000 fine for an ex-mortgage adviser after he committed fraud and falsified payslips exaggerating his own income for a mortgage application.
The broker, Amir Khan, who was banned from broking and running his own business, Sovereign, in March 2013, proved financial hardship in June this year so will no longer have to pay the fine.
Khan never disputed the prohibition order but challenged the size of the financial penalty.
The Tribunal, in a written decision dated 8 April 2014 , determined that Mr Khan acted dishonestly when submitting personal mortgage applications to lenders.
Khan was the sole owner, director and employee of Sovereign and arranged regulated mortgage contracts for retail customers on a non-advised basis.
He knowingly submitted a personal mortgage application to a lender through Sovereign in 2009 which contained false and misleading information about his income, including in the form of false payslips.
In its Decision Notice, the Authority concluded that Mr Khan had failed to act with due skill, care and diligence in performing his significant influence function at Sovereign, in breach of Statement of Principle 6, by failing to take adequate steps to counter the risk that Sovereign might be used to further financial crime.
Victoria Hartley is contributing editor at Mortgage Solutions, Specialist Lending Solutions, Your Money and Your Mortgage at London-based publishing company AE3 Media.
She has an MA in Radio from Goldsmiths after gaining a 2:1 in a Comparative American Studies BA at Warwick University. She also holds a TEFL qualification and taught overseas in Mexico and Japan from 1994 to 1997.
Her role includes editorial oversight of the news, analysis and features, event content management and strategic and editorial consultancy for the AE3 Media group. She is an experienced video, broadcast and live-event host and regularly chairs web and podcast debates and interviews.
Multiple award nominations have resulted in two wins: Santander Media Awards, trade journalist of the year and Headlinemoney Awards, mortgage journalist of the year (B2B). Here is one of the award-winning pieces: https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/news/2011/07/21/exclusive-tale-bailey-fraud-witness/
Previous roles include editorships of Mortgage Solutions, consumer title What Mortgage and trade title Credit Today as well as a stint freelancing for a variety of outlets including The Guardian and Which? Money.
