Mr Madhvan Nair, a former mortgage broker with AHL Investments Pty Ltd (trading as Aussie Home Loans), was convicted and sentenced in the Downing Centre Local Court last week on eighteen charges involving the submission of false or misleading information to banks.
Mr Nair was convicted after admitting to providing documents in support of eighteen loan applications to Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) and National Australia Bank (NAB) knowing that they contained false or misleading information.
The applications contained documents which purported to be from the applicant’s employer. These documents were false and in most instances, the loan applicant had never worked for the particular employer.
For each and all eighteen charges, Mr Nair was convicted and released upon entering into a recognizance in the amount of $1,000 on the condition that he be of good behaviour for three years.
In sentencing Mr Nair, Magistrate Atkinson noted that it was a serious matter and that there are tough laws for good reason.
Magistrate Atkinson described the nature of the offending in submitting 18 separate loan applications containing false information or documents as very troubling. Noting Mr Nair had no prior convictions, his ill health, the relatively small financial benefit he received, his plea of guilty and high level of cooperation with ASIC, Magistrate Atkinson stated that had any of the factors been different, the defendant may have faced full-time imprisonment.
ASIC Deputy Chair Peter Kell said:
ASIC wants to ensure that dishonest brokers are removed from the industry and we will take all necessary steps to achieve this.’