The FSA has fined County Down mortgage intermediary Case Funding Centre (CFC) £35,000 for failures which led to at least 16 fraudulent mortgage applications being submitted to lenders.

James Ian Shanks, a former partner and mortgage adviser at CFC, has been banned for recklessly submitting false information to lenders.

The regulator found that CFC did not have adequate systems and controls in place to counter the risk of customers and staff submitting mortgage applications based on false income and employment information. Furthermore, advisers did little more than superficial ‘sense checks’ on mortgage applicants’ income and employment details.

These failings, combined with CFC’s historically weak recruitment process, led the FSA to conclude that the firm had exposed itself to the risk of being used to facilitate financial crime.

In addition, Shanks was shown to have submitted mortgage applications from CFC’s advisers containing income information that he failed to verify against the firm’s records, despite being aware that such a check was possible.

Margaret Cole, director of the FSA’s enforcement and financial crime division, said: “We expect all authorised firms