Mortgage adviser duo sentenced over £3m property fraud

Two mortgage advisers have been given suspended prison sentences for their role in a series of successful frauds totalling £3 million.

Larry Barreto and Tassib Hussain were sentenced after a prosecution by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Dishonest

Between 2015 and 2018, Barreto gave advice in return for a fee, without the necessary FCA authorisation, to people looking to take out residential mortgages.

In the eleven cases, he dishonestly inflated the applicant’s income in their application to the lender. Barreto then paid Hussain, who created false self-employment and employment documentation.

Fake

Hussain produced multiple fake HMRC documents that contained fake 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.

£3 million

As a result of the property 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 £3 million.

Barreto, aged 68, was given two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years, with 120 hours of unpaid work, for eleven counts of fraud by false representation, and two counts of carrying on regulated activities without authorisation, which he admitted.

Hussain, aged 44, was sentenced to 16 months suspended for two years, with 120 hours of unpaid work, for one count of fraud by false representation relating to 11 mortgage applications, which he admitted.

You are guilty of systematic mortgage fraud.”

Judge Cole, sitting at Southwark Crown Court, told the pair: “You are guilty of systematic mortgage fraud” and have “abused your position”.

Therese Chambers, Joint Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the FCA, 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.”

Read more about mortgage fraud.