The Financial Conduct Authority has secured an order of £4m against an unauthorised mortgage broker and its associates who it described as "sham brokers" who exploited vulnerable consumers.

The FCA won a court judgment against the property and mortgage company in 2022.

London Property Investments (UK) Limited (LPI) arranged mortgages while NPI Holdings Limited (NPI) bought properties and rented them back to the sellers, both without FCA authorisation.

Daniel Stevens, the director of LPI and NPI, and his father, Tony Stevens, were found liable. 

In his judgment, Mr Justice Fancourt described the breaches as “serious contraventions, conducted over an extended period, involving high levels of culpability including deception of the consumers and the lenders, and which took advantage of the consumers’ vulnerability.” 

The four defendants were ordered to pay around £4m to the FCA which will need to recover funds before any compensation can be paid to affected individuals. 

LPI is required to remove restrictions registered against the titles of four properties. The restrictions were used to force individuals to pay exorbitant fees to LPI. If the fees were not paid, then the individual could not sell or re-mortgage their property. In some cases, that trapped individuals into high-interest bridging loans. 

Steve Smart, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “These sham brokers preyed on vulnerable people who were struggling financially and trapped them with exorbitant fees. 

“The defendants used a smokescreen of deception which cost consumers and lenders dearly. This was a complex case, but the ruling shows that these were serious breaches of our rules.  It is only right that we can now pursue LPI, NPI, Daniel and Tony Stevens to compensate for the losses they caused the victims.” 

In his judgment, Mr Justice Fancourt found that LPI had contravened the general prohibition in section 19 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 in relation to 26 further individuals identified by the FCA, and that Tony Stevens and Daniel Stevens were both knowingly concerned in these contraventions. He ordered the defendants to pay for losses caused to these and 45 other individuals. 

In July 2020, the FCA had obtained an interim injunction and a freezing order to stop the activities and freeze residential properties and other assets owned by Tony and Daniel Stevens and the two companies. 

In November 2022 the FCA obtained a judgment against LPI, NPI, Daniel Stevens and Tony Stevens in relation to 45 individuals; the judgment takes the total number to 71.