Mr Shiv Prakash Sahay was sentenced on 16 June 2020 in the Downing Centre Local Court on two charges of breaching section 82(2) of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth). Mr Sahay pleaded guilty to the offences () and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of nine months. The period of imprisonment was wholly suspended immediately upon Mr Sahay entering into a nine-month good behaviour bond in the amount of $1,000.
ASIC permanently banned Mr Sahay from engaging in credit activity on 6 October 2015 (), following his conviction on 7 July 2015 for various fraud-related offences (). The court found that between 8 October 2015 and 2 October 2018, Mr Sahay continued to engage in credit activity in relation to 38 credit contracts for loans totalling over $17 million.
While banned, Mr Sahay provided the following credit services:
- communicated with consumers about prospective credit applications;
- requested and received documents from consumers in support of their credit applications;
- prepared and submitted applications and supporting documents to credit providers;
- communicated with credit providers during which he asked for updates on the status of loan applications and discussed the particulars of loans, and on multiple applications represented that he was another individual who was a credit representative at the time;
- provided supporting documents to a credit representative so they could be submitted under that credit representative’s authority; and
- provided information to a credit representative so it could be submitted to credit providers.
Mr Sahay earned $111,064 in commissions on these loans.
The matter was prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions after an investigation and referral of a prosecution brief from ASIC.
Background
The conduct that led to Mr Sahay’s conviction on 7 July 2015 was part of the Consumer Lending Case Study considered in the Financial Services Royal Commission Volume 2 Interim Report (page 32).
