Former CommBank planner convicted on appeal
A former senior planner with Commonwealth Financial Planning who in late 2017 walked away from an Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) prosecution with a $3,000 fine and no conviction recorded has found himself convicted after an ASIC appeal.
The regulator announced today that ASIC and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions had successfully appealed the sentence of Ricky David Gillespie, a former senior financial planner of the Commonwealth Bank’s financial planning subsidiary, Commonwealth Financial Planning Limited.
ASIC noted that on 12 December, last year, Gillespie was fined $3,000 with no conviction recorded, after pleading guilty to a rolled-up charge of forgery.
It said the DPP had subsequently filed a notice of appeal against the sentence on the basis that it was manifestly inadequate, in particular the decision not to record a conviction.
ASIC said the appeal had been heard in the Brisbane District Court on 14 September 2018 and that ASIC and the DPP received a judgment in their favour on 20 September 2018, with her Honour Judge Rosengren ordering that a conviction be recorded against Gillespie.
ASIC said the judge had noted that:
- this was an offence of dishonesty, committed by a person occupying a position of trust;
- the documents forged were protective in nature, both in terms of the CBA bank and the clients; and
- when confronted by CBA staff that he had committed forgery, Gillespie denied doing so and continued to commit acts of forgery until April 2009.
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