Former PSC Horsell Insurance Brokers director Craig Horsell appeared in the Adelaide Distirct Court on Friday and was fined $75,000 and sentenced to three years in jail after pleading guilty to dishonestly using his position to authorise payments into his personal bank account.
“The sentencing of Mr Horsell, and his previous banning from providing financial services, should serve as a deterrent to any financial adviser tempted to deceive their clients or otherwise act dishonestly,” said ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell.
“ASIC’s investigation found that between 7 September 2007 and 4 May 2010, Mr Horsell acted dishonestly when he authorised the transfers of 89 insurance premium payments from clients into his personal bank account but did not purchase the insurance products requested by the clients,” said an ASIC statement.
I am a little jaded over the repeated failure of the press (no-one in particular – they all do it) to differentiate between general insurance – where in the context of this article, brokers have access to clients’ premiums via trust accounts they control – and life insurance where this is not the case. A quick search on Google shows this business is purely general insurance. The two are totally separate and operate completely different business models.
Dear ASIC,
For anyone to take you seriously nowadays, you may wish to reconsider the way you engage with your most important stakeholders, the financial advisers.
I find this article funny, entertaining at best, as I know you are all talk.
Having reported more than one scam and scammers over the past few months,and having seen no investigation nor actions taken against these con artists darkening our professional image, forgive me if I may sound a little bit jaded at this point.
Kindest Regards,
Aspara Gusfarth
Thanks Peter Kell for the warning to all us crooked advisers…..I almost read this as an insult. A stupid statement to make in my opinion. Thieves don’t all of a sudden become honest citizens because of ASiC warnings.