An adviser who sought to encourage people into self-managed superannuation funds by helping them locate lost super accounts has been convicted in the Federal Court and ordered to repay 10 clients more than $76,500.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said the man, Steve Preston, formerly known as Gordon Charles Fowler, and his company Manito Pty Ltd, had been identified as a result of ASIC’s superannuation switching surveillance campaign.
The corporate regulator said the Court had also made declarations against Preston that he had used money or permitted it to be transferred from Manito’s bank account in breach of his duty as a director and had not taken reasonable steps to stop Manito, trading as Superannuation Retrieval Services (SRS), from engaging in unconscionable conduct by representing to clients that they were not restricted as to the use of their superannuation funds.
Commenting on the court outcome, ASIC executive director of enforcement Jan Redfern said the regulator would not tolerate directors who inappropriately handled superannuation funds and put people’s financial futures at risk.
“ASIC was particularly concerned that some SRS clients had very small amounts of superannuation and they did not understand the obligations involved in setting up and managing self-managed superannuation funds,” she said.
Redfern said that in some cases, consumers with as little as $8,000 in superannuation entitlements had been advised by Preston and SRS to establish self-managed superannuation funds and had been charged up to $1,500 in fees.
