Mortgage broker fined £133,000 for mis-selling

City regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined mortgage broker Hadenglen Home Finance £133,000 for mis-selling remortgage deals and payment protection insurance (PPI). In addition, Richard Hayes, Hadenglen's chief executive, will have to pay a penalty of £49,000.

An FSA investigation found that Hadenglen had exposed 2,000 mortgage and 1,900 PPI customers to an "unacceptably high risk of being sold a product that was not suitable".

Hadenglen, the FSA said, had failed to gather "sufficient information" on the financial position of clients before selling them PPI; it may have been that they did not need the insurance.

When advising people to switch mortgages, Hadenglen had failed to tell them that they could be worse off due to redemption penalties imposed by the mortgage firm they were moving from.

Mr Hayes was deemed personally responsible for the firm's sales practices.

"The penalty imposed on Mr Hayes should leave senior management within firms in no doubt that the FSA will hold them to account if they fail to treat their customers fairly," said Margaret Cole, the FSA's director of enforcement.