The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has affirmed the decision of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to permanently ban Victorian insurance product referrer Tracey Joanne Burnell from providing financial services.
Companies controlled by Burnell, Landlord Protection and Collection Pty Ltd (LPC) and Landlord Protection Group Pty Ltd (LPG), arranged insurance contracts between 2014 and 2017.
However, during the relevant period, LPC and LPG did not have an Australian Financial Services (AFS) licence. They were also unauthorised to provide financial services, save for a short period in which an insurance broker authorised LPG.
As a result, ASIC permanently banned Burnell from providing financial services. However, she subsequently applied to the AAT to review ASIC’s decision – to no avail.
AAT rejected Burnell’s submission as it found that ASIC was justified in banning her under s920A of the Corporations Act.
Burnell had been banned from providing financial services previously, emerged from the ban repeating the offending behaviour, and compounded that repeat offending behaviour through multiple companies, it was outlined.
She also caused her offending companies to engage in behaviour that saw them charge insurance premiums that were misleading and deceptive and maintained that acting without the requisite authorisation formality was permissible, it was noted.
“The decision reinforces the need for any person providing financial services to hold an AFS licence or to be authorised to provide such services by an AFS licence holder and that authorisation to provide financial services on behalf of an AFS licence holder must be lodged in writing with ASIC within 15 business days,” ASIC said.
Burnell has 28 days to appeal the AAT’s decision to the Federal Court.
