ASIC has permanently banned Mr Shiv Prakash Sahay, of Lidcombe NSW, from the credit and financial services industries.
The bans follow an ASIC investigation which led to Mr Sahay being convicted on 7 July 2015 in Sydney Downing Centre Local Court on three charges of making false statements, making false documents and using false documents in home loan applications. He was sentenced to 350 hours of community service work. (refer: 15-176MR)
'ASIC's action against Mr Sahay shows how seriously we are about tackling loan fraud,' ASIC Deputy Chair Peter Kell said. 'We won't hesitate to take strong action to remove dishonest brokers, who falsify loan documents to the detriment of their clients, from the industry'.
Mr Sahay has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) for a review of ASIC's decision.
Background
On 26 May 2015, Mr Sahay pleaded guilty to three charges of:
a) making 13 false statements in loan applications submitted by him on behalf of his clients to Bankwest and Suncorp;
b) making 23 false documents in support of those false statements, mainly bank statements; and
c) using 26 false documents in loan applications submitted by him on behalf of his clients to Bankwest (a division of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia) and Suncorp Metway Limited. (refer: 15-128MR).
On 7 July 2015, Mr Sahay was convicted and sentenced to 350 hours of community service work for the above three charges. (refer: 15-176MR)
Since becoming the national regulator of consumer credit in 2010, ASIC has achieved significant loan fraud outcomes, with criminal proceedings being launched against 11 people, resulting in seven convictions for various offences and four defendants currently before the courts. 53 individuals or companies have also been banned from providing credit services or had their credit licences revoked (including 23 permanent bans and 13 cancellations or suspensions).
Editor's note:
On 22 October 2015, Mr Sahay made an application to the AAT for a review of ASIC's decision.
Editor's note 2:
On 9 August 2016, Deputy President J W Constance of the AAT affirmed the financial services and credit banning orders made by the ASIC Delegate.