Mortgage fraudster banned by FSA

The FSA is trying to root out mortgage fraud

A mortgage broker from South London has been banned from the financial services industry for submitting fraudulent mortgage applications.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said Isah Attayi Mohammed had tried to trick three lenders into granting nine mortgages based on inflated incomes.

Seven loans were for himself and two were for customers.

The FSA said Mr Mohammed, who traded in the Old Kent Road, was a risk to lenders and the financial system.

"Mr Mohammed was found to lack honesty and integrity for submitting fraudulent mortgage applications," said Jonathan Phelan at the FSA.

"The FSA is continuing to find instances in which mortgage brokers make false declarations on their own mortgage applications as well submitting false mortgage applications for customers," he added.

Mr Mohammed's firm was called Initial Financial Services (UK) Limited (IFS), and operated from 632 Old Kent Road, London SE15 1JB.

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It is the fifth time this year that a mortgage broker or introducer has been banned by the FSA for trying to defraud lenders.

In February, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) warned of the scope for fraud by unscrupulous professionals in the property industry who tried to cash in on the demand for newly built city-centre flats.

In the case of Mr Mohammed, the broker tried to obtain multiple loans from three unnamed lenders by submitting forms with successively larger, and false, figures about his income.

Between June 2006 and February 2008, he put in seven mortgage applications in his own name, raising his supposed income - and thus the size of the loan - from £49,600 in 2003 to an eventual income of £140,000 in 2006.

"None of the income figures that you declared on any mortgage applications... were consistent with information held by the HMRC," said the FSA.

Similarly, bogus information was submitted about two customers to back up their loan applications.

The FSA said it had found evidence that Mr Mohammed had been involved in submitting several mortgage applications for one property, but in the name of different people.