A Liverpool, UK-based financial adviser has been jailed for five years for defrauding an elderly client out of more than GBP 300,000 and purchasing a villa in France.
53-year old Simon Sibthorp, a former investment adviser at Blankstone Sington, was found guilty of “deliberately taking advantage” of a client in the Liverpool Crown Court and sentenced to a five-year jail term.
Mr Sibthorp allegedly convinced his client, Rita ‘Betty’ Allen, to hand over GBP301,500 to buy a property in the Languedoc region of France on the Mediterranean coast.
"The prosecution say that this defendant was able to steal this sum of money by deliberately taking advantage of an elderly person,” prosecutor Kenneth Grant GC told the court.
"A spinster, who had trusted the defendant to act in her best interests financially and whose trust this defendant cynically betrayed."
Blankstone Sington dismissed Mr Sibthorp in November 2011 for gross misconduct after not disclosing loans from his client.
As many as 30,000 investors could be impacted as the regulator looks into a growing number of funds, while also ...
As younger Australians express increasingly pessimistic expectations, core behaviours that can be enforced by advisers ...
Educating clients on what their money will get them in terms of advice is key to managing expectations and getting the ...
Never miss the stories that impact the industry.
Get the latest news! Subscribe to the ifa bulletin