In October 2014, Barry David Hassell of Athelstone, South Australia, pleaded guilty to 39 charges including dishonest conduct, providing ASIC with false or misleading information and failing to provide a disclosure document to clients.
Mr Hassell was a former authorised representative of various licensees, including the TAL-aligned Pivotal (now Affinia Financial Advisers), Suncorp’s Guardian Advice and the now-defunct AAA Financial Intelligence and AAA Shares.
“He has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, to be released forthwith on his own recognisance of $100, to be of good behaviour for a period of 12 months,” a release stated.
The Adelaide District Court heard that Mr Hassell’s misconduct occurred over a period of more than seven years during his time as a director of BD & WJ Hassell Pty Ltd and as a former authorised representative of a number of Australian financial services licensees.
Mr Hassell provided advice to clients about life insurance and superannuation products.
ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell said, “Mr Hassell failed to act in the best interests of his clients. ASIC and the courts will not tolerate conduct that does not live up to community expectations.”
Congratulations Peter,
It must be noted that advisers and the companies that they sell for, on commission must act in the best interest’s of the client at all time.
Kind regards,
Adrian Totolos.
Business Analyst.
The good news is that Barry sat in front of Judge Judy and had his Monopoly “Get out of Jail Free” card accepted!
The bad news is that his $100 fine was pulled from the Community Chest meaning he had to mortgage Vine Street to pay it…
Gine Rinehart, whose kids lawyer claims she has been stealing of her children will probably be made a dame . Now there is someone who you wouldnt want acting on anyones behalf . Penalty – Nil
Just for your own info the gaols in SA are full to overflow. Even if they did want to keep him behind bars, there aint no room!!
Meanwhile the $143,000,000.00 lost via Trio Capital is still missing and the boys down at ASIC don’t know what to do. They were last seen out in the backyard sniffing around for bones. Word is They may have got a big fish and he is going down for $100.00. ASIC the joke that just keeps giving.
ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell said, “Mr Hassell failed to act in the best interests of his clients. ASIC and the courts will not tolerate conduct that does not live up to community expectations.”
All I can say is that community standards must be pretty low at the moment.
My Dealer has just told me that my advice is no doubt very good etc etc, but I’m just not documenting it properly. On the basis of this guy’s penalty I suspect I’ll probably be given a knighthood and offered a film role and then asked to be an Advisor to all those dummies out there doing the right thing.
So, contrary to to the racy “Breaking News” headline, he wasn’t actually jailed. Instead he paid $100.
Turns out it was just another opportunity to experience those extremely annoying ifa website popup ads, from suppliers who have gone straight onto my “do not use” list.
“released forthwith on his own recognisance of $100”!!! Gee that’s a harsh penalty!!!