FIN.

FCA fines and bans unapproved adviser

FCA has banned a financial adviser and fined him £68,300.  Simon Varley was a director and held the (then) CF10 function at Dickinsons Financial Management Limited.  He was also a CF30 customer adviser until 2013, when his approval for the function was removed at his request.  However, he continued to advise retail customers until 2017 without either approval or the required qualifications. FCA found he repeatedly misled his fellow directors by providing false information about his qualifications and by claiming he had applied for the necessary FCA approval but that FCA had not updated the Register.  In fact, he had never reapplied.  He also misled the firm’s PII insurers about his qualifications and, in his CF10 function, misled FCA when providing the firms’ RMARs.

Mr Varley’s actions not only increased the risk of loss to consumers because of his lack of qualifications, but also meant his advice was deemed uninsured. His actions led to the failure of the firm.

Emma Radmore