Gaurav Malhotra fronts court over fraudulent loans

An award-winning community leader and prominent cricket coach in Melbourne’s west posed as a fake financial broker to scam $11m.

Fake mortgage broker Gaurav Malhotra is blaming his clients for pressurising him into obtaining about $11m worth of loans using fraudulent documents. Picture: Supplied

THURSDAY UPDATE: An award-winning community leader and cricket coach in Melbourne’s west has been sent to jail for obtaining $11m worth of loans for home buyers using fraudulent documents.

Gaurav Malhotra, a father-of-two who was awarded volunteer of the year in 2019 by the Wyndham City Council for services to sports and recreation, was sentenced in the County Court on Thursday to at least two-years-and-six months’ imprisonment.

He was employed by his wife Reena Malhotra — a registered mortgage broker — as a loans administration assistant in her business, JBR Financial Services, when he obtained the fraudulent loans.

The court heard that Malhotra went to jail in 2004 for at least 21 months for stealing $121,000 from his employer while working as a bookkeeper in Darwin.

He then filed a bogus doctor’s letter claiming 90 per cent of the stolen funds were for his mother’s liver transplant and cancer treatment in India but investigations revealed he used most of the ill-gotten gain on gambling.

Award-winning community leader and prominent cricket coach Gaurav Malhotra has gone to jail for obtaining $11m in loans for home buyers using fraudulent documents.

He was arrested in Victoria and extradited to the Northern Territory.

Following his release from prison in Darwin, Judge John Kelly said Malhotra moved to Melbourne in 2006, incurred debts and borrowed about $40,000 from family and friends while moving from job to job.

Malhotra has been employed as the general manager at the Independent Vehicle Inspection Centre.

He also coaches at the Point Cook Cricket Club and has acted as its treasurer, vice-president and president.

Judge Kelly said the sums Malhotra fraudulently obtained from banks were very substantial and his dishonesty in securing loans was persistent, sophisticated and ambitious.

“You persisted for years in creating false documents, taking commissions to which you were not entitled and gullying banks into provide finance to people who would have been denied had their earnings, assets and liabilities been revealed,” he said.

“You are vulnerable to succumbing to dishonesty to earn money you cannot earn in lawful employment.”

Judge Kelly said Malhotra told a psychologist it appeared his offending was the product of “blackmailing clients” and that other mortgage brokers were engaging in similar offending.

Malhotra altered bank slips, inflated his victims’ pay and filed false statutory declarations in order to secure home loans on multiple occasions.

He was sentenced to a maximum of four years.

WEDNESDAY UPDATE: A pencil pusher who admitted stealing about $11m worth of loans from banks using fraudulent documents by posing as a financial broker claimed his clients pressured him into obtaining the finances.

Gaurav Malhotra, 49, appeared in the County Court on Wednesday for further plea following his guilty pleas on February 19 to three charges of obtaining a financial advantage by deception, two of obtaining a financial advantage by deception and one of using a false document.

He was employed by his wife Reena Malhotra — a registered mortgage broker — as a loans administration assistant in her business, JBR Financial Services.

Gaurav Malhotra is awaiting sentence for duping banks out of about $11m in fraudulent loans. Picture: Liam Beatty/ NewsWire.

Judge John Kelly said Malhotra’s history of dishonest behaviour cast doubts about his prospects for rehabilitation.

In terms of his latest offending, he said the court wouldn’t take into account claims by Malhotra that he was pressured by his clients to obtain the loans because there was absolutely no evidence to that effect.

“He was levying commission on top of the commission that JBR was getting so effectively he had two revenue streams as a consequence of his fraudulent practice that went on for years,” Judge Kelly said.

“It’s a case of dishonesty designed to supplement his income when he perceives he can’t earn the income he wants to earn.”

Reacting to the Malhotra’s submission that the banks didn’t suffer a financial loss, the judge said “Markets are volatile, interest rates fluctuate and when you get someone loans by inflating assets and inflating incomes, there’s obviously a risk to financial institutions that the ability to service the loans are compromised when interest rates change.”

Malhotra altered bank slips, inflated his victims’ pay and filed false statutory declarations in order to secure home loans on multiple occasions.

His lawyer Jeffery Levine pointed to Malhotra’s early guilty plea, delay in finalising the case and that his personal gain from the loans obtained was “much lower”.

Malhotra will be sentenced on Thursday.