The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that Rajinder Gill has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for running a sale-and-rent-back scheme without authorisation and for illegally providing credit agreements and mortgages. Two accomplices were also sentenced, with Amandeep Heer receiving a two-year community order with 250 hours of unpaid work and Jetinder Sandhu receiving a 15-month suspended prison sentence with conditions including 100 hours of unpaid work. Operating through Secure Property Consultants Ltd, Gill targeted homeowners in financial difficulty, encouraging them to sell properties below market value on the promise they could remain as tenants while charging excessive, confusing or hidden fees totalling GBP 925,233, with some victims subsequently evicted. The misconduct occurred between 1 September 2014 and 7 November 2018, and the FCA noted Gill had previously signed undertakings in 2013 and 2014 not to enter into sale-and-rent-back activity or conduct regulated activity without authorisation; after becoming aware of the FCA investigation he sought to conceal the activity and shut down the company. Gill pleaded guilty to 27 offences relating to sale-and-rent-back agreements and credit and mortgage contracts, with a further 12 similar offences taken into consideration at sentencing, and he was disqualified from acting as a company director for eight years. The FCA has commenced confiscation proceedings to deprive the defendants of the proceeds of crime with a view to compensating victims.

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