June 20 – In the biggest-ever penalty on an individual trader, the UK financial sector regulator Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on Wednesday imposed a fine of nearly 1 million pounds on an Indian-origin realty broker for fraudulent sale and renting of homes.
“Birmingham-based Gurpreet Singh Chadda, who was doing business of sale and rent-back of homes through Red2Black Homes and B& L Homes, has also been banned from working in the British financial services industry, besides a fine of 945,277 pounds ( nearly Rs.9 crore),” the FCA said.
“This is the largest-ever fine for a sole trader in a retail business,” the FCA said, adding that Chadda was deliberately misleading his customers for personal gains.
The order follows an FCA investigation into Chadda’s involvement in seven sale and rent-back transactions between June 2009 and January 2010. The regulator found serious failings in all the seven cases.
A sale-and-rent-back transaction is an agreement where a home owner sells his home and then rents it back from the arranger so as to be able to carry on living in the home.
FCA said that people who sell their homes in this way are often vulnerable as they are in financial difficulties and need to raise money to pay mortgage arrears and avoid imminent repossession.
Gurpreet Singh Chadda was doing business of sale and rent-back of homes.
– INDIA TODAY
