Henry Moser - Cheshire Mortgage Corporation fined - Unfair Practices Blemain Finance

savethe

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined Cheadle-based mortgage lender, Cheshire Mortgage Corporation Limited (CMCL), £1.225 million for failing to treat customers fairly in the sale of mortgages and arrears handling from October 2004 to the end of 2009.

The CEO of CMCL, Henry Moser, has been fined £70,000 and agreed to step down from his role within three to six months. Andrew Lawton, the firm’s compliance director, has been fined £13,500 and banned from holding a significant influence function.

The FSA has also required CMCL to carry out a redress exercise that could see approximately £2 million paid to around 2,000 affected customers.

CMCL operated in niche markets, including lending to customers with poor credit histories. The FSA found that CMCL failed to treat some of its customers fairly when they fell into arrears, was unable to always demonstrate that mortgages it sold were affordable, and did not always communicate regularly or fully with its customers. Moser has been disciplined for failing to spot these problems and put them right.

CMCL overcharged some customers in arrears and applied arrears charges inconsistently and unfairly. Customers were also sometimes notified of charges after they had been incurred.

The FSA also found that:

when CMCL transferred customers in arrears to Monarch Recoveries for debt recovery, they were charged £150 despite it being an in-house company;
CMCL did not always make a reasonable effort to reach an agreement with customers in arrears over method of payment; and
CMCL did not always properly assess the affordability of mortgages by, for example, challenging a customer’s declared income.
Moser, as CEO, was ultimately responsible for the actions and compliance of the firm, however he failed to ensure the firm was being properly managed so that problems would be identified and remedied. Lawton was aware of certain poor practices taking place at the firm but failed to put them right and demonstrated a lack of competence and capability in his role as a compliance director.

Tracey McDermott, director of enforcement and financial crime, said:

“CMCL’s lacklustre approach to regulation, combined with very poor practices in collecting arrears, meant that some customers already worried about being able to pay back their mortgages were put under undue pressure and sometimes ended up paying more than they should.

“The failings of Moser, Lawton and CMCL were serious and let down a vulnerable group of consumers. Where firms and individuals fail to comply with our rules and treat customers fairly they should expect to be held to account.”

CMCL and Moser both settled at an early stage of the investigation so qualified for a 30% discount, without which the fines would have been £1.75 million and £100,000 respectively. Lawton settled at a later stage of the investigation and qualified for a 10% discount, without which he would have been fined £15,000.

thefirmanator

SOMETHING MUCH BIGGER IS A FOOT!!!!

These shysters have managed to not only disadvantage thousands of the most vulnerable lenders in society but in the process, have managed to fool some of the biggest banks in the UK into giving them the funds to do it, and now those banks are petrified to accept their massive blunder to the point where they allow this farce to continue to avoid the gigantic loss that they and ultimately the citizens of the UK will suffer.

In the interim, Mosers outfit continues to raise invoices, invent additional costs and attempt to extort money from clients with the rather futile objective of maintaining alleged value which must have been wiped out the day property prices tumbled. Theres no shame in a company falling on its sword in a recession with the magnitude of this one but to persecute thousands of vulnerable lenders in the interest of peoples egos and someone at a bank not having the balls to accept their mistake and pull the plug can only be compared to the lack of compassion for humanity demonstrated by people such as Bernie Madoff.

abridgetoofar

Myself and my business partner were clients. You know when you take the facility that its an expensive one, what you dont realise is that using one trick or another £100 will become £200 and so on. What the guys at Blemain clearly don't do is look past the financial implications and see through to the human implications, attempting to convince these people that their company's behaviour can have serious impacts on peoples health would not be productive as they are too far past the point of no return. What has been achieved by the FSA will hopefully create enough interest so that the countless clients who I am sure have been damaged both fiscally and mentally will now join together for their far overdue compensation.

suffeing

Now is the time to complain to the FSA, put pen to paper i have previously loged my complaint by phone, but i will now send in a further complaint. Its only when the numbers of complaints against a company reach a certain level, they will action against a rogue company.

Conrad

I've always avoided them like the plague, as should any thinking broker.

Alarm number 1 = charging super high interest rates to already struggling borrowers.

Even recently brokers have been recommending this mob. I can see lots of miss - selling claims comming down the pipe.

If a client is already struggling, sending them to a high cost lender is the last thing they need.