Richard Thomas Marshall has been banned from providing financial services for six years, while his wife, Gwenda Jean Marshall, has been banned for three years.
In a statement on Thursday, the corporate regulator said “an ASIC delegate found Mr and Mrs Marshall carried on a financial services business without holding an AFS licence from July 2015 until May 2021”.
According to ASIC, Mr Marshall advised clients of his company, RT Marshall, many of whom were elderly, to open margin lending accounts and appoint himself or Mrs Marshall as an authorised person to trade shares on their behalf.
“Mr Marshall arranged for shares to be traded on client accounts by instructing Mrs Marshall to execute the share trades on behalf of the clients. The clients were charged substantial fees for these services ranging from $3,000 to $20,000 per client, per financial year,” ASIC said.
Further, the ASIC delegate was satisfied there was evidence that Mr Marshall withdrew money from a deceased client’s estate without authority. He then failed to refund the money to the deceased’s estate when requested to do so, ASIC said.
“In banning Mr Marshall, ASIC found that his conduct demonstrated that he was not a fit and proper person to provide financial services,” the corporate regulator said.
The ban prevents Mr and Mrs Marshall from providing any financial service, controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business and performing any function involved in carrying on a financial services business.
The couple have the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.
A 3 year ban for what’s essentially fraud, theft and the provision of unlicensed advice, while others have been banned for the same or even longer period of time for following Dealer Group instructions to the letter but not in the format and colors that an ASIC delegate wanted? Seriously ASIC?!
this hurts to read…. gives rise to so many questions? other than being banned from something they were not permitted to do in the first place, what punishment have they received? any criminal charges? well done ASIC for stopping them in their tracks but come on… Given we licensed advisers have to pay for this action, how about we are allowed to appeal to the AAT for ASIC’s decision – BAN THEM FOR LIFE. and pay our costs.
Many questions – like can they go back to providing unlicensed advice after sitting out their sentence?
If you are unlicensed, why would you stop just because the regulator banned you? Why bother sitting out the sentence?
So they dont get any penalty at all. No fine, nothing. They were already not legally able to give financial advice. They didnt even a slap on the wrist. All this says is YOU ARE BETTER OFF BEING UNLICENSED. Why would anyone ever be a licensed adviser when these 2 can do exactly what we do with no insurance costs, dealer group fees, compliance, audits and no ASIC fees which are the biggest example of fees for no service.
If an adviser was to sell shares and withdraw money from a deceased client’s account we would face a massive fine, a permanent ban and maybe even jail time if ASIC thought they could get a bit of street cred for it. Shame on you ASIC
Six years for ASIC to do something, no wonder this profession is stuffed.
Another joke 6 years not even licenced once again who is doing surveillance ????? Not ASIC
This seems less than an actual financial adviser would receive!
ASIC… send the bill for this one to someone else, they’re not Licensed Financial Advisers.
ban from what they were not licensed in the 1st place, ???
hahaha yeah I know right. “yeah mate, your banned from the thing you actively avoided anyway (licensing).” haha
How does an unlicensed person get banned from something he is not allowed to do? If this is a con, isn’t this a crime under some other law?
How do you ban someone not on the FAR?
Only ASIC know how…and we’ll look forward to picking up the tab for all their ‘client’ losses…
Great to know that the fees/compulsory levy paid by all good honest licensed advisers funded ASIC to taken this action. Great penalty from ASIC too, an unlicensed operator is banned from providing financial services for six years, after providing unlicensed financial services for 5 years. What a great deterrent!
Great – another unlicensed business we will all pay the ASIC bill for.
Does it feel weird that you can get banned from something you weren’t accredited for in the first place? Like having your spaceship license taken away from you.
What? I paid $15 to someone dressed up as Darth Vader who told me it was a legit licence. You can’t take my spaceship licence away.
Gold. But be careful, ASIC might thinlk we need space ship licenses and make us pay for them.
I wonder if anyone at ASIC would pass the FASEA ethics exam?
Yet another NON Financial Adviser that Real Advisers have to pay ASIC to deal with.
Next Advisers will be paying the Interest on the $$$$ Trillion dollar Govt Debt, surely that’s Adviser’s faults too.
And no doubt Frydenberg’s Great Big Tax on small business (#ASIClevy) paid for all of ASIC’s time spent on this.