12:00a.m. 31st May 2008

| By Carolyn Tucker

A Sunshine Coast mortgage broker has been suspended by her professional association after telling a client that his dog could sign a document required to obtain a loan.

The Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia has suspended Nicky Orchard for three months after investigating allegations aired on TV and in the Daily early this year.

Former client Ben Bracken said Ms Orchard had advised him to commit fraud in order to obtain finance for a property purchase – a claim strongly denied by Ms Orchard.

Mr Bracken said he and his wife signed a contract to buy a property in 2006 and, when they had difficulty securing finance, Ms Orchard suggested they obtain a statutory declaration claiming that they had been gifted $25,000 in order to meet the lender’s requirements.

“So our best thing to do is to get a statutory declaration signed just basically saying that I, whoever, is giving a $25,000 gift, a non-repayable gift to Ben and Christine Bracken and sign it off,” she said in a recorded phone message.

“I don’t care who you get to sign it, you can get your dog to sign it for all I care at this particular point in time.”

Ms Orchard said she deeply regretted making the remarks but they were never intended to be taken literally.

The Mortgage and Finance Association Tribunal found that Ms Orchard had engaged in misconduct “in that she failed to act with due skill, care and diligence in her mortgage and finance industry dealings by advising a loan applicant to prepare an incorrect statutory declaration as evidence of a non-refundable gift of funds”.

Ms Orchard said she was appealing the suspension.