A MORTGAGE company based in Bexleyheath has been publicly censured by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and two of its directors fined.

The FSA found Abbey Mortgage Ltd directors William Evans and Gary Howes had failed to check whether the information provided to them by customers was accurate.

They had also put their customers at risk of receiving unsuitable advice by not checking the affordability and suitability of recommended mortgage contracts.

Fining them each £30,000, the FSA said they had put financially vulnerable customers at risk and has also put the firm at risk of being used for mortgage fraud.

The pair qualified for a discounted fine because they agreed to settle at an early stage of the investigation.

Action was taken after the FSA carried out a review of self-certified mortgages sold by the company, which also has a branch in Stokesley, Yorkshire, between June 2006 and June 2007.

The FSA said it would have fined the company £50,000, but the firm could not afford it.

But the firm has agreed to review its past business and to stop advising on or arranging any new self-certified business mortgage contracts.