Larry Barreto has pleaded guilty to two counts of carrying on regulated activities without authorisation.

He formerly traded as Barreto and Partners, an unauthorised financial services firm based in Nottingham.

He pleaded guilty to the two counts in a plea hearing at Southwark Crown Court on 29 July.

The charges relate to advice provided and arrangements made relating to a series of regulated mortgage contracts between June 2014 and March 2018.

Mr Barreto (06/05/55) is an unauthorised and prohibited person.

Mr Barreto, along with co-defendant Tassib Hussain (13/11/79) who ran Keystone Chartered Accountants based in Nottingham, has also been charged with committing fraud by false representation.

Under the alleged conspiracy if Mr Barreto concluded that clients had insufficient income to justify the mortgage they required, he would charge the client a fee which he would then pay in cash to Mr Hussain, to allegedly create the false self-employment and employment documentation to support mortgage applications for clients with insufficient income. The total value of the mortgages applied for was around £3.8m.

Both deny committing this offence and will face trial on 23 October 2023.

The FCA commenced criminal proceedings against the men in April last year.

The FCA said sentencing for Mr Barreto’s carrying on of unauthorised business will take place after the conclusion of the trial for the fraud offence.

Carrying on regulated activities without authorisation is punishable by a fine and/or up to two years in prison.

Fraud is punishable by a fine and/or up to ten years in prison.