Shiwei (Darren) He of Sydney, NSW, has pleaded guilty to making a false statement in a credit licence annual compliance certificate lodged with ASIC.

Mr He is a director of N V I Lending Pty Ltd trading as General Mortgage. In February 2019 he lodged a credit licence annual compliance certificate with ASIC in which he certified that none of the fit and proper people under his Australian credit licence (which included himself) had had their accreditation suspended or cancelled by a lender or their membership with an aggregator terminated. This certification was false, as Mr He knew his accreditations with the Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, NAB and Westpac had been suspended or cancelled between 2016 and 2018.

Mr He was also aware that his introducer agreement with the Beagle Finance aggregator service, trading as Loankit, had also been terminated in 2018. Under the agreement, Mr He was authorised to refer loan applications from his clients to various lenders which held agreements with Beagle.

Accurate compliance reporting is a critical obligation for credit licensees and ensures consumers can have confidence in the businesses they look to when applying for credit.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is prosecuting the matter after a referral from ASIC.

Mr He faces a maximum penalty of 12 months imprisonment and/or a $12,600 maximum penalty.

The matter has been adjourned for sentencing on 29 March 2022. 

Editor's note:

Proceedings have been adjourned to 12 April 2022 to allow further submissions from the prosecution and defence.