ASIC bans NSW property spruiker

The Australians Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has banned Park Trent Properties Group's chief executive and director, Ronald Malcolm Cross, from providing unlicensed financial services for four years after he delivered unlawful advice for over five years to clients to buy investment properties through their self-managed super funds (SMSF).

In 2015, the Supreme Court of New South Wales also restrained NSW's Park Trent from providing unlicensed financial product advice regarding SMSFs.

According to ASIC, Cross was directly involved in Park Trent‘s contraventions and "willing to ignore legal advice and warnings about its practices", which proved that he was likely to contravene financial services laws.

ASIC's deputy chairman, Peter Kell, said: "ASIC's action against Mr Cross shows that we will not hesitate to exclude property spruikers who provide unlicensed financial services from the industry."

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ASIC first launched legal proceedings against Park Trent in November 2014, who, by the time of the trial in 2015, had offered advice for more than five years to more than 850 clients to set up and switch funds to an SMSF. In October 2015, the Supreme Court of NSW found Park Tent had unlawfully advised clients to buy investment properties through SMSFs.

Park Trent appealed the decision to the NSW Court of Appeal and the appeal was set down for a final hearing on 31 August, 2016.

Cross has a right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC's decision.