A broker has been banned and fined £106,499 by the FSA for knowingly submitting regulated mortgage applications in his own and clients’ names containing false and misleading information.

Mortgage broker Michael Lewis, of Gillingham, Kent, was barred from carrying out regulated financial services business by the regulator after the fraud came to light.

Not only did Michael Lewis falsify information in order to obtain a residential mortgage for himself, he also submitted falsified mortgage applications in the names of his clients.

In his personal application he stated that his “Net profit amount” for the year ending October 2006 was £88,335, which is significantly higher than the figure he declared to the FSA - £57,344.

The FSA also stated that Lewis submitted four mortgage applications on behalf of clients that were also falsified. He attempted to secure mortgages for his clients by claiming they earned more than they did – one client, who ‘had been employed as a technician for 12 years with a basic salary of £22,000’ was portrayed as ‘self-employed as a film director for 16 years with a basic salary of £145,000’ for one year.

In another case, the FSA revealed that Lewis “took active steps to adduce false evidence to support the fictitious employer and inflated salary” for one client.

The regulator told him: “you knowingly submitted mortgage applications providing false and contradictory information to lenders in relation to both their incomes and employers, in order for them to obtain, or attempt to obtain, mortgages.

“You also took active steps to acquire a false payslip for Client Z, in an attempt to corroborate his false employment and inflated income, which you certified as a true copy of the original and submitted with the application to Lender C.

“Lastly, you inflated your own income in an application for your own mortgage.”