A former AMP financial adviser has been banned for life from acting as an invest-ment adviser.
A former AMP financial adviser has been banned for life from acting as an invest-ment adviser.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) ruled that Laurence Tobin had used funds invested by clients for his “own benefit” and had recommended that they invest in a scheme which was not AMP approved.
Tobin acted as a financial adviser for AMP between September 1995 and September 1996 and has now been banned from acting as the representative of a securities dealer or financial adviser.
AMP has compensated two of Tobin’s clients for their losses, while it is still investi-gating a third claim.
ASIC launched an investigation into Tobin’s activities after AMP accused him of im-proper conduct.
An administrative hearing before an ASIC delegate found that Tobin approached a number of his current and former clients between 1994 and 1998, recommending that they invest in a scheme known as the Twinelles Mortgage Reserve Fund, which was not an AMP-approved product.
ASIC said it had obtained statements from four of Tobin’s former clients who said they had lost more than $300,000 by investing in Twinelles.
Three of those investors lost amounts of $66,732, $69,000 and $58,000, ASIC says. Two of the investors have been compensated in full by AMP while it is cur-rently addressing the issue of compensating the third investor. The fourth investor, who did not meet Tobin in his capacity as an agent for AMP, lost $117,000.
Tobin was declared bankrupt on November 22, 1996.
