The Insurance Council of B.C. fined Harvinder Kaur $2,000 and suspended her for 30 days after the broker issued two temporary operating permits for her friend’s car without paying for them, and then tried to register her friend’s car in her name.
Kaun quickly voided the temporary operating permits, which were required for the car to pass an air emissions test, as well as the registration of the vehicle in her name. She confessed what she had done to her manager and the brokerage terminated her employment on that same day.
The 1999 Ford Escort initially belonged to the broker’s brother. It was then “gifted” to a family friend in August 2011.
Kaun told the council that the friend borrowed the car for a short period of time so that she could learn to drive. The friend returned the vehicle to Kaun in December 2011 and cancelled the insurance on the car. Kaun and her brother were in India when this happened.
When Kaun returned from India in April 2012, she decided she wanted to drive the car to work. In order to reinstate the insurance, the car had to go through the AirCare emissions test.
At her brokerage in May 2012, Kaun issued a two-day operating permit in her friend’s name, since her friend was still the registered owner of the car. Kaun scanned and emailed the permit to herself, forwarded the email to her brother, who then printed the permit and put it in the vehicle so the car could be taken to the emissions test.
Permits cannot be sent electronically and must be printed on the paper of the province’s government insurer.
Later that same day, Kaun voided the permit before paying for it.
The car passed the emissions test on the same day that Kaun voided the permit. Not knowing this, Kaun issued a temporary one-day permit the following day, thinking she needed additional time for the car to pass the AirCare test. She did not pay for the permit and voided the transaction after learning that the car had gone through AirCare.
“That evening, [Kaun] registered the vehicle in her name, without completing proper Autoplan transfer forms or obtaining required signatures from the friend,” the council said in its intended decision. “The following morning, the licensee went to work at the agency and voided the registration she completed the prior evening, and noted on the Autoplan document ‘manager has to do transfer.’”
Kaun admitted what she did to her manager after she voided the registration. She was let go and found work at another brokerage, where she disclosed what she had done. Council said her “forthright explanation” of what she had done – both to her previous and new employers – factored into their decision to give her a shorter suspension.
