Former UK-based financial adviser Cindy Brad has been given a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to four counts of fraud by false misrepresentation and two counts of acting in breach of a disqualification order.
The Insolvency Service said Brad has previously been in jail for 18 months after being convicted of theft from her own clients and of obtaining money by deception in 2009. As part of that sentence, she was banned from being a company director for 10 years.
But when she was released from prison, she continued to carry out criminal activities and used three different identities to “disguise her criminal past and disqualification status”, the Insolvency Service added.
She managed to formally change her name and obtain fresh identity documents as a result. In 2020, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) banned Brad, also known as Shruti Patel, from performing any function in relation to any regulated activity.
The watchdog said she used to work as an adviser under six different names – including Brad, Swati Patel, Swatiben Patel, Churuti Patel, and Churuti Brad – despite never being an authorised professional.
According to the Insolvency Service, Brad went on to use one of the identities and supply fake banking documents to secure a £200,000 ($240,500, €235,400) mortgage before reneging on the repayments.
The operation
The convicted fraudster incorporated several companies to allow her to act as a financial adviser again, which was in breach of her 10-year disqualification order.
As part of her operation, she also made a fraudulent £100,000 loan application on behalf of an individual named Selvi Civi using false documents.
Civi pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by false representation and received a four-month sentence, suspended for two years, alongside Brad on 22 July 2021.
On top of this, the former adviser made false representations to the disclosure barring agencies in England and Wales, and Scotland, in order to secure certificates which would have allowed her to act as an authorised representative of financial services businesses.
Her operation was deemed a “sophisticated forgery” by the judge at Leicester Crown Court and that her personal difficulties did not justify the fraud she and Civi carried out.
Brad has now been handed a 15-year ban from acting as a director.
Glenn Wicks, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service, said: “Despite having already served time for similar offences, this did not deter Cindy Brad, and the convicted fraudster continued to apply for substantial loans worth thousands of pounds, using a variety of false documents and fake identities.
“Thanks to the joint work between the Insolvency Service, the police and other government agencies, we were able to uncover Cindy Brad’s duplicitous activities. The courts recognised the severity of her actions and her three-year sentence should serve as a warning that we will use the full extent of the law to investigate and prosecute fraudsters.”
