Former Colonial financial planner William Richard Berghouse has been given a lifetime ban from acting as a representative of a securities dealer or investment adviser from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).
Berghouse, a former adviser for Colonial Financial Services and AXA Australia subsidiary Charter Financial Planning was charged with the unauthorised withdrawal of $2000 from one of his client’s accounts.
In a statement released by ASIC, Berghouse admitted he used the money from his client’s account to feed his gambling addiction.
ASIC’s NSW General Counsel Jan Redfern said following Berghouse’s departure from Colonial, he failed to notify his next employer, Charter Financial Planning, the reasons why he left his position with the bank.
Redfern said Berghouse posed no further threat to the investing community, but by his conduct had shown himself “not to be of good fame and character and that permanently banning was therefore appropriate.”
“ASIC’s role is to protect the investing public from advisers who abuse their position of trust and we will not hesitate to remove such individuals from the industry,” she said.
