Not upheld: Cifas fraud marker reporting; document falsification complaint against Funding Circle Ltd

Decision detail

Summary

Mr R, a sole trader, applied for a business loan from Funding Circle in 2024 and submitted bank statements with his name altered to reflect a surname change by deed poll made in 2021. Funding Circle declined the application and reported Mr R to Cifas for submitting altered documents. Mr R complained, claiming he had only changed his name on the statements to reflect his correct legal name and had not committed fraud. The ombudsman found that Mr R had submitted false documents and that Funding Circle had reasonable grounds to report him to Cifas, rejecting the complaint and declining to require removal of the fraud marker.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Mr R submitted false documents (altered bank statements) with his loan application, which gave Funding Circle reasonable grounds for suspicion of fraud. The ombudsman determined that Funding Circle was not required to make further enquiries before reporting to Cifas, and that Mr R could have simply informed Funding Circle of the name discrepancy rather than falsifying documents. The ombudsman found no new evidence that would justify removing the marker, particularly as Mr R provided no corroboration of his claim that his bank provider advised him to alter the statements.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website