Two men were handed suspended prison sentences following their conviction over a £3m mortgage fraud.
Larry Barreto, 68, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years with 120 hours of unpaid work.
While his accomplice Tassib Hussain, 44, was sentenced to 16 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years with 120 hours of unpaid work.
The two men were sentenced yesterday (27 March) at the Southwark Crown Court after they were convicted in November 2023.
In passing sentence, Judge HHJ Cole said: “You are guilty of systematic mortgage fraud” and have “abused your position…it ruins the integrity of the system to have dishonest players in it”.
The FCA prosecuted the pair for multiple mortgage frauds.
Barreto was convicted for 11 counts of fraud by false representation and two counts of carrying on regulated activities without authorisation, and Hussain for one count of fraud by false representation relating to 11 mortgage applications.
The FCA said between 1 January 2015 and March 2018, Barreto gave advice in return for a fee, without authorisation, to people looking to take out residential mortgages.
In 11 cases, he dishonestly inflated the applicant’s income in their application to the lender. Barreto would then pay Hussain, who created false self-employment and employment documentation to support the inflated mortgage applications for clients with insufficient income.
Hussain produced multiple fake HMRC documents that contained false income figures, which in each case were sent on to the lender by Barreto. With Barreto’s knowledge, Hussain also claimed to employ two of the applicants and produced false contracts of employment and payslips, which Barreto also forwarded to lenders.
As a result of the fraud, lenders granted mortgages to several applicants on a false basis, placing them and their customers at greater risk beyond financial loss. The total value of the mortgages applied for was around £3m.
Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said: “Larry Barreto and Tassib Hussain chose a selfish path in pursuit of their own greed. Their dishonesty unnecessarily put people at risk of taking out unaffordable loans and losing their homes. Their offending also undermined the reputation of the industry and the legitimate advisers that work in it.
“These sentences should send a clear signal of the lengths we and the courts will go to catch and prosecute those who commit such acts of dishonesty. And for Mr Barreto and Mr Hussain the consequences of their offending will have far-reaching impacts for them beyond their sentences.”
The FCA said it has begun confiscation proceedings to recover the considerable financial benefit obtained by the defendants.
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