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Update : Chris Farrell admits fraud charges


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Old 22-12-2010, 13:38
CXC3000
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Idiot really.

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A former contestant in Lord Sugar's hit show The Apprentice has admitted fraud.

Mortgage broker Christopher Farrell faced magistrates in Plymouth, Devon, charged with four counts of fraud by false representation.

Farrell, 29, from Arrowe Park Road, Upton, Wirral, Merseyside, spoke only to confirm his name, age and address and enter the guilty pleas. On pleading guilty, he also asked for three further charges to be taken into consideration.

He was originally arrested in August, shortly before the current series of the BBC1 show - which finished on Sunday - was broadcast.

After hearing submissions from the prosecution and defence, magistrates decided their powers of sentence were insufficient and committed Farrell to Plymouth Crown Court to be sentenced on January 28. he was released on bail until then.

Magistrates were told that the mortgage adviser worked for a firm in Plymouth for nearly two years until he was sacked.

Prosecutor David Gittins told the court: "Christopher Farrell started working as a mortgage and insurance adviser with the company, Mortgages for Plymouth, in November 2007 until he was told 'You're fired' in August 2009. After that he took part in the BBC programme The Apprentice until he was fired from that in November."

Mr Gittins explained that Farrell, who earned a salary of £1,600 a month, would earn commission if he made sales of more than £5,000 a month.

Desperate to earn more money to support his wife and young family, Farrell started inflating the incomes of clients to ensure their mortgage applications were successful - thereby hitting his monthly sales target. Farrell would either alter P60 forms or payslips to show his clients in a more favourable light to a mortgage lender or create fake documents, magistrates were told.

"The clients had no knowledge of what he did," Mr Gittins said.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20101222...d-6323e80.html
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Old 22-12-2010, 13:43
Shappy
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Oh dear.

But not the first candidate ever to have a dodgy past.
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Old 22-12-2010, 15:32
CXC3000
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Ok, this bit is really bizarre :

On pleading guilty, he also asked for three further charges to be taken into consideration.
So he wants more charges piled on top of what he's already got ??
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Old 22-12-2010, 16:03
DSDP
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So he wants more charges piled on top of what he's already got ??
he is screwed anyway, might as well get everything out of the way now and start fresh, rather than having something that might blow up in your face later. and it paints him as someone who will admit his faults, so in the end a minor win in the whole mess.
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Old 22-12-2010, 16:15
floopy123
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Well it is Christmas time - the season of goodwill to all men and Apprentice candidates - so maybe he won't get life imprisonment.
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Old 22-12-2010, 17:31
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Well it is Christmas time - the season of goodwill to all men and Apprentice candidates - so maybe he won't get life imprisonment.
No, but the fact that the magistrates though that they did not have sufficient sentencing powers suggests that they think he should serve more than six months.
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Old 22-12-2010, 18:54
notary
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What exactly are sales of more than £5000 a month.
He was selling mortgages, does anyone take out a mortgage for less than that these days.
Even insurance comes to more than that.
Does it mean where people were paying off monthly more than that. I dont know house prices there, but it surely didnt need many.
Most mortgages are at least £100000 these days. Where does the £5000 figure come in.
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Old 22-12-2010, 19:10
smudges dad
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it's probably his commission
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Old 22-12-2010, 20:00
Mrs Spratt
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I think they've missed out some commas - it's the commission that would be £5,000 a month if he made enough sales.

There are very strict regulatory laws around financial services and what he did wasn't minor.

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Old 22-12-2010, 20:41
jenco
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Presumably this means there are a load of folk out there who got mortgages who shouldn't have and who are likely to be facing financial difficulties in repaying them, especially of the interest rates go up. So fairly serious stuff Chris 'sleazeball' has done. Went right off him during the series, especially after the ad episode.
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Old 23-12-2010, 09:37
notary
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Why should anyone go to a mortgage broker instead of straight to a building society or bank.
They only exist for people who cant really afford the mortgage, and perhaps let out part of it.
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Old 23-12-2010, 10:03
Jepson
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Why should anyone go to a mortgage broker instead of straight to a building society or bank.
They only exist for people who cant really afford the mortgage, and perhaps let out part of it.
Banks and building societies have some weird and wonderful policies on who to lend to which change all the time and a mortgage broker can keep tabs of who's offering what.

As an example, many years ago, a business colleague of mine who, with his wife, had been saving with a building society for some time applied to that society for a loan because they were starting a family and wanted to buy a house.

He was told that they couldn't offer him a loan as they were reserving their funds for people who already borrowed from them.
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Old 23-12-2010, 10:10
notary
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This was many years ago when they were short of funds. That is not the reality today. I think you will find the truth is what I say. the banks, societies have to go by rules which cant be broken. The brokers (what a good name for them) break all the rules. Its just unlucky he was caught doing what everyone else is doing.
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Old 23-12-2010, 12:56
carolineglasgow
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What exactly are sales of more than £5000 a month.
He was selling mortgages, does anyone take out a mortgage for less than that these days.
Even insurance comes to more than that.
Does it mean where people were paying off monthly more than that. I dont know house prices there, but it surely didnt need many.
Most mortgages are at least £100000 these days. Where does the £5000 figure come in.
Who really knows, notary, but it does seem clear that brokers get good commission rates for selling us stuff. I re-mortgaged last year and the broker was apparently required by law to give me details of his commission from the bank in writing (not sure if it's the same in other parts of the UK, but I imagine it would be). The person I used got about 2% of my mortgage, so I can see how a commission of £5,000 would mount up.......... mortgages totalling £2.5 million would give someone a commission of £5,000 at 2%.

That's not to say that I find Chris' reported shenanigans acceptable, but I just wanted to say that a commission of £5,000 would be believable.
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Old 23-12-2010, 14:02
Jepson
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mortgages totalling £2.5 million would give someone a commission of £5,000 at 2%.
£50,000.

But I don't think the commission is on the entire mortgage.
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Old 23-12-2010, 16:00
notary
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To carolineglasgow.
Perhaps you can tell us. Why couldnt you go to the bank direct. I get almost daily letters asking me to remortgage.
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Old 24-12-2010, 12:31
sanderton
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Ok, this bit is really bizarre :



So he wants more charges piled on top of what he's already got ??
If he doesn't he can face prosecution later on those offences too. Better to take a longer sentence for multiple offences at once then a much longer one for four crimes treated and sentenced separately. Also it helps anyone injured by those crimes as they are recognised by the system.
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Old 24-12-2010, 14:06
CXC3000
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If he doesn't he can face prosecution later on those offences too. Better to take a longer sentence for multiple offences at once then a much longer one for four crimes treated and sentenced separately. Also it helps anyone injured by those crimes as they are recognised by the system.
Ah, I see. Thanks for that, sanderton.
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Old 24-12-2010, 14:08
Mrs Spratt
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If he doesn't he can face prosecution later on those offences too. Better to take a longer sentence for multiple offences at once then a much longer one for four crimes treated and sentenced separately. Also it helps anyone injured by those crimes as they are recognised by the system.
Yes, if you go to prison and other crimes are then detected you are liable to be arrested as you finish your sentence and put on remand while you wait for another trial.

It's much better to own up to everything you've done and get it all bundled into the same trial. It also helps police clear up rates and saves them time looking into each separate crime.
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Old 24-12-2010, 14:35
Jo09
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Yes, if you go to prison and other crimes are then detected you are liable to be arrested as you finish your sentence and put on remand while you wait for another trial.

It's much better to own up to everything you've done and get it all bundled into the same trial. It also helps police clear up rates and saves them time looking into each separate crime.
Or not comit the crime in the first place.
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Old 24-12-2010, 16:02
Mrs Spratt
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Or not comit the crime in the first place.
What a random comment! We're talking about someone who HAS committed a crime and why they have asked for other crimes to be taken into consideration! No approval of crime is implied!
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Old 24-12-2010, 20:24
bossoftheworld
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"The clients had no knowledge of what he did," Mr Gittins said.



I seriously find this hard to believe.

They must know what their salary is and approximately how much of a mortgage they should be offered.

I can imagine they would know this tbh.
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Old 24-12-2010, 20:27
Jepson
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"The clients had no knowledge of what he did," Mr Gittins said.



I seriously find this hard to believe.

They must know what their salary is and approximately how much of a mortgage they should be offered.

I can imagine they would know this tbh.
Not necessarily.

Mortgage brokers often know about unusual deals such as lenders that will offer a particularly high mortgage/earnings ratio.

And, anyway, most people would probably get the information about typical ratios from the mortgage broker in the first place.
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Old 25-12-2010, 00:57
Cherry-choc
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Really silly thing to do, and quite out of character given how well he came across on the show.
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Old 25-12-2010, 07:44
mary patricia
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He was originally arrested in August, shortly before the current series of the BBC1 show - which finished on Sunday - was broadcast.

Magistrates were told that the mortgage adviser worked for a firm in Plymouth for nearly two years until he was sacked.

Prosecutor David Gittins told the court: "Christopher Farrell started working as a mortgage and insurance adviser with the company, Mortgages for Plymouth, in November 2007 until he was told 'You're fired' in August 2009. After that he took part in the BBC programme The Apprentice until he was fired from that in November."
This story doesn't make sense. If he was sacked in 2009 for fraud, why did it take a whole year for him to be arrested? How did he manage to get on the programme with something like this on his record? I'm sure the programme researchers do detailed background checks on the contestants

I'm really surprised at this. I thought Chris was made of better stuff than that.
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