Two Perth-based finance brokers have been permanently banned from engaging in credit activities and providing financial services by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Eric-John Larry Pryor and Peter Lachlan McDonald were banned after ASIC found they had independently and jointly engaged in dishonest and misleading conduct when brokering motor vehicle financing for 12 clients between May 2012 and February 2013.
The pair who were employed as finance brokers for Get Approved Finance in Victoria Park misled clients with poor credit histories to believe they would be approved for vehicle finance if they loan applications were supported by guarantors. Pryor and McDonald prepared loan applications solely in the names of the proposed guarantors without the guarantors’ knowledge.
Pryor and McDonald financed over $315,000 in automotive loans (with interest of $470,000) which otherwise were unlikely to have been approved.
ASIC’s investigation also found they had personally profited from the sale of vehicles to three clients where they sourced the vehicle, artificially inflated the sales price and failed to disclose their transaction interest, and fabricated insurance policies in relation to five loans so as to mislead the lender about the existence of mandatory comprehensive insurance policies being in place for those clients.
The regulator’s investigation is still on-going, and Pryor and McDonald have the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on ASIC’s decision.
