Former Sydney adviser handed imprisonment terms after pleading guilty to theft

Former Sydney financial adviser Keith Flowers has been sentenced to three years and two months of imprisonment after pleading guilty to charges of theft and dishonesty in 2020.

On Monday (18 July), ASIC confirmed that the Bathurst-based, former adviser will serve the sentence by way of intensive correction order and was also ordered to pay a $9,500 fine.

Mr Flowers was the founder and director of Flowers Financial Group and Flowers Financial Management which "specialised in providing financial advice to the medical profession" and are now both in liquidation - between 1991 and 2012.

ASIC said that in 2011, Mr Flowers engaged in a scheme to raise money for a proposed IPO of a company named Avior Australia. The scheme raised $1.48 million from investors who were long-term clients of Mr Flowers and were collected in a trust account.

In October that year, investors were told that the initial public offer was to be deferred and any remaining seed capital would be returned to investors. However between June 2011 and May 2012, Mr Flowers acted dishonestly and stole money, transferring $209,500 from the trust account “with the intention of gaining an advantage for himself and Flowers Financial Management”.

Mr Flowers pleaded guilty in December 2020.

"Mr Flowers did not return the funds to investors but stole the money and transferred it to accounts for his own benefit," ASIC said at the time.

The intensive correction order also requires Mr Flowers to perform 500 hours of community service work.

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.