An Abbotsford woman has been given a suspended sentence and ordered to pay just over $6,700 in restitution after previously pleading guilty to one count of fraud.
Satvir Brar was initially charged with six offences – two counts of theft over $5,000, two counts of fraud over $5,000, one count of theft and one count of fraud – but the other five charges were stayed on Dec. 11 in Abbotsford provincial court.
A suspended sentence means Brar will receive a criminal record and could go to jail if she violates the conditions of her one-year probation.
Brar, 29, who also goes by the names Nikki Brar and Nikki Perdja, was charged in early 2014 after two people filed reports with the Abbotsford Police Department regarding concerns about failed investments they had made through Brar.
Police at the time said cheques provided to the complainants to reimburse their lost funds had bounced.
The court ruling last week ordered Brar to pay back $4,200 to one victim and $2,500 to the other.
Brar was the subject of two prior “cease and desist” orders prohibiting her from taking part in unlicensed mortgage broker activities.
The first compliance order was issued by the B.C. government’s registrar of brokers in March 2011.
That order states that Brar was acting as a mortgage broker through the companies Private Lending Inc., Canada Lending, and Alliance Brokers North America, none of which are registered as mortgage brokers in B.C.
Two people who went through Brar to secure loans filed complaints when the loans did not come through and Brar failed to return their deposits.
A second order was issued in July 2011 by the Superintendent of Financial Services in Ontario, where Brar resided before moved to B.C.
In part, she was ordered to stop arranging mortgages and to stop accepting fees in connection with the arrangement of a mortgage.
The incidents for which she was charged in Abbotsford occurred in June, July and August 2011.