Court dismisses adviser appeal against 10-year sentence

The court handed down the judgement earlier today, saying that it had agreed with the reasons for convicting former adviser Gabriel Nakhl on eight charges of engaging in dishonest conduct with investor funds.

Nakhl was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in March 2019 in the District Court of NSW after he was found to have advised 12 clients to set up SMSFs and invest their money in products such as shares, managed funds and high interest rate bank accounts. The funds, totalling $6.7 million, were then used for Nakhl's own purposes.

Nakhl had lodged a notice of appeal against his sentence in March 2020.

According to court documents, Nakhl had appealed on the grounds that the original judge had "erred in her assessment that the offences were in the high range of objective seriousness", that the offences had overlapping characteristics which did not justify the severity of the sentence, and that the total sentence was "manifestly excessive".

However, the court found Nakhl's case had failed to prove the first two appeal grounds, and his appeal was therefore dismissed.