Insurance broker given suspended sentence
A former insurance broker, Anthony John Ryan of Doncaster, Victoria, has been sentenced to a three-and-a-half year suspended jail term by Melbourne County Court after pleading guilty to three charges brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
His sentence was suspended on the condition that he enter into a recognisance to be of good behaviour for the duration of the suspended term. He was fined $10,000.
Ryan pleaded guilty to one count of dishonesty by using his position as director of InterRe Insurance Brokers to gain a personal advantage, by misrepresenting the amount and details of Carriers and Couriers insurance that he had written.
He also pleaded guilty to two counts of engaging in dishonest conduct relating to a financial product when he misrepresented to TCIS Insurance Brokers the correct amount of premiums needed to gain Carriers and Couriers insurance, and causing the misrepresentation to QBE Mercantile Mutual of the amount of money and details of Carriers and Couriers insurance that had been placed with InterRe in 2003.
Between 2003 and February 2004, Ryan only advised InterRe of 36 of 375 Carriers and Couriers insurance policies that he had written during that time and failed to remit $213,000 in premiums that he collected.
QBE Mercantile did not receive the full amount of insurance premiums collected and had no knowledge of the full details of insurance business that Ryan had written, resulting in insurance being paid for non-existent cover.
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