A woman who was banned from conducting unregistered mortgage broker activities in B.C. and Ontario is now facing six fraud and theft charges in Abbotsford.
Satvir Brar, 27, who also goes by the names Nikki Brar and Nikki Perdja, has been charged with two counts of theft over $5,000, two counts of fraud over $5,000, one count of theft, and one count of fraud for incidents that occurred in June, July and August 2011.
She is next scheduled to appear in Abbotsford provincial court on April 7.
Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald said the charges relate to two complainants and “investments that didn’t turn out to be favourable and questions about the legitimacy of the investments.”
He said cheques provided to the complainants to reimburse their lost funds allegedly bounced.
One person allegedly lost $1,000, while the other was allegedly out about $11,000, MacDonald said.
Brar was the subject of two prior “cease and desist” orders prohibiting her from taking part in unlicensed mortgage broker activities.
The first compliance order was issued by the B.C. government’s registrar of mortgage brokers in March 2011.
That order states that Brar was acting as a mortgage broker through the companies Private Lending Inc., Canada Lending, and Alliance Brokers North America, none of which are registered as mortgage brokers in B.C.
The documents state that a complainant, who wanted to obtain a second mortgage of $60,000 in the fall of 2010, found Brar online through the advertisement of mortgage broker services.
The person was informed that Brar had secured a $60,000 loan and required a lender’s fee of $1,000.
The complainant did not receive the loan money and repeatedly requested a return of the $1,000 deposit but it never appeared, according to the documents.
A second person, who was seeking a $20,000 loan and also found Brar online in November 2010, was asked to send a $500 fee, which would be refunded if the loan did not proceed. That person never received the loan nor was he refunded his $500, the order states.
Government staff looking into the matters discovered that Brar had been licensed as a mortgage agent in Ontario from July 1, 2008 to March 31, 2010 with a financial business, but her employment was terminated and her licence expired.
The B.C. registrar of mortgage brokers concluded that Brar was conducting mortgage broker activity in the province without being registered to do so.
The order prohibited her from conducting any further such activity.
A similar order was issued in July 2011 by the Superintendent of Financial Services in Ontario, where Brar resided before moving to B.C.
Brar was ordered to stop soliciting people in Ontario “to borrow money on the security of real estate,” to cease providing information about a prospective borrower to a prospective mortgage lender, to stop arranging mortgages, and to stop accepting fees “in connection with the solicitation, negotiation or arrangement of a mortgage.”
