Former NAB AR permanently banned
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has permanently banned former authorised representative of a National Australia Bank (NAB) subsidiary, Patrick Simon Mitchell from providing financial services.
Mitchell was banned after pleading guilty and being convicted of 25 counts of stealing in the Supreme Court of Tasmania in March. The charges related to him misappropriating a total of almost $2.4 million from a client of his financial services practice to support an “extravagant lifestyle”.
His activities occurred over a period of around four years, and he was an authorised representative of the NAB subsidiary for much of that time.
He was convicted following an investigation by Tasmania Police and was sentenced to eight years in jail and would be eligible for parole after serving five years.
His banning was effective from 26 May.
The banning formed a part of ASIC’s Wealth Management Project, which was established in October 2014. The project focused on the conduct of the largest financial advice firm including NAB, Westpac, the Commonwealth Bank (CBA), ANZ, AMP, and Macquarie.
It has banned 38 advisers from the financial services industry thus far.
ASIC deputy chairman, Peter Kell said: “ASIC will act to remove people from the financial services industry who act dishonestly and breach the trust of their clients”.
ASIC has the power to permanently ban a person from providing financial services without a hearing if the person is convicted of “serious fraud” such as stealing, it said.
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