Former Bankstown mortgage broker pleads guilty to submitting false loan applications worth $3.8 million

A former Bankstown-based mortgage broker has pleaded guilty to 10 charges of providing false loan applications to lenders over a six-month period to secure approvals for home loans totalling almost $3.8 million.

Moustafa Dandachli, also known as Muzi Dandachli, 31, of Georges Hall, supplied the applications to two banks between July 2011 to January 2012.

The applications, for 10 people, included loans ranging from $196,000 to $640,000. Documents included employment history, tax returns and bank statements.

He was authorised to provide credit services to consumers from 23 December 2010 until 27 February 2012, when his employer terminated his authorisation.

In August 2012 he was expelled as a member of the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA)  after its tribunal found  he "had engaged in acts of a fraudulent or dishonest nature by submitting  mortgage applications to lenders which included supporting documentation in the form of bank statements, he either fraudulently created or knew to be false at the time of their submission to the lender".

He was previously suspended by the industry body in July 2012 pending further investigations.

Dandachli was charged by ASIC under section 33 of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009  whilst he was engaging in credit activity on behalf of his employer.

Section 33 makes it an offence for a person engaging in credit activities to give false or misleading information or documents to another person where that person knows, or is reckless as to whether, such information or documents are false or misleading.

The main purpose of this provision is to make it an offence for a person to forward an application for a credit contract or a lease that is false or misleading.

Dandachli appeared before Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court and admitted to providing the documents knowing they were false or misleading.

He faces a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment, a fine of up to $11,000 or both, for each charge.

He was granted conditional bail, was committed to the Sydney District Court for mention on 28 June 2013. He will be sentenced at a later date.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is prosecuting this matter.