Mortgage brokers banned

Date:Wednesday 24th December 2008
Author: Max Freedman

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has banned two mortgage brokers who misled it by giving false reports.

Andrew David Bowden and Shaun Lawrence, sole trader mortgage brokers, were found not to have met the required standards for regulation.

The FSA said Mr Bowden, who traded as Scott Jarrett Bowden and Partners, had given the FSA "false and unverified information".

Mr Lawrence took documents off files before submitting them.

In addition, they did not keep records of customer files and were not certain where all such files were situated, thus putting sensitive and confidential customer data at risk.

The FSA also said that this posed the danger of customer enquiries or complaints not being followed up properly.

Jonathan Phelan, head of retail enforcement at the FSA, said: "The actions of both brokers amply illustrate that they lacked not only the competence and capability to follow our rules, but also demonstrated a failure to act with honesty and integrity."

Meanwhile, the Eastern Daily Press reports that Norfolk book-keeper Michael Watson has been jailed for 27 months after providing false documents for fraudulent mortgages.

Mortgage broker Narendra Patel, who was also involved in the scam, was jailed for 18 months.