B.C. woman who 'carried on' as mortgage broker, sent falsified documents ordered to pay $35K

A mortgage application form is seen in this stock image. (Shutterstock.com)

A woman from B.C.'s Lower Mainland has been handed a $35,000 penalty after admitting she "carried on" as a mortgage broker in the preparation of 10 mortgage applications, despite lacking the necessary registration.

Three of the mortgage applications Sarbjit Bains was involved with also contained “falsified financial documents,” according to a consent order she signed with the province’s registrar of mortgage brokers.

While the falsified documents were provided to Bains by another unregistered broker, identified only as JKC in the consent order, Bains neither confirmed their veracity nor met with the associated mortgage applicants before passing them along to a bank employee. 

“Ms. Bains knew or ought to have known that these documents were not genuine,” reads the Oct. 22 order, which also notes bank staff "relied on" some of the documents to “make lending decisions.” 

The name of the bank is redacted in the order. 

Course never completed

Bains was working as a mortgage specialist at a different financial institution – whose name is also redacted in the order – when she helped arrange the 10 mortgages between 2018 and 2019.

She acknowledged that doing so was beyond the scope of her role and violated B.C.’s Mortgage Brokers Act.

Bains has never been registered as a mortgage broker or submortgage broker in B.C. – while she signed up to challenge a mortgage broker course in 2017, and to attend the same course in 2019, she did not complete either effort.

Mortgage specialists are commissioned salespeople who are restricted to dealing in “products offered by the bank or institution by which they are employed,” according to the Canadian Securities Institute.

Of the 10 applications Bains helped submit to an outside bank, five were provided by JKC.

The consent order does not explain how Bains and JKC met or started working together, but notes an investigation determined he had also provided fraudulent documents to others working in the mortgage sector, including registered brokers.

Commissions sent by e-transfer

Bains helped prepare applications on behalf of four acquaintances as well, and the registrar found she had “carried on business as a mortgage broker” in those cases by meeting with the borrowers, obtaining their personal information, and collaborating with a submortgage broker from the unnamed outside bank.

That broker provided her $3,611 in commissions via e-transfers for her efforts.

Bains’ employer was “not aware that she was sending deals and files to another financial institution,” or that she was receiving compensation for doing so, according to the consent order.

On top of issuing Bains a $35,000 administrative penalty, the registrar ordered her to “immediately cease” acting as a mortgage broker or submortgage broker, unless she becomes registered to do so.