Ex financial adviser faces up to ten-year sentence for mortgage fraud

A former regulated financial adviser and a suspended chartered accountant face maximum punishments of ten years in prison and/or a fine when they are sentenced in February for false representation on mortgage applications. The prosecutions were brought by the FCA and both men have been found guilty at a hearing in Southwark Crown Court.

By Neasa MacErlean

Larry Barreto, who was struck off as a financial adviser in 1996 by the Personal Investment Authority, traded as Barreto and Partners, an unauthorised financial services firm based in Nottingham. He was found guilty of 11 cases of false representation in which he "dishonestly inflated the mortgage applicant's income in their application to the lender", according to a statementfrom the Financial Conduct Authority. He will also be sentenced for two offences of arranging and advising on regulated mortgages without FCA authorisation, after he pleaded guilty on these counts at his trial. Maximum punishment for these offences is a fine and/or up to two years' imprisonment.