A former registered financial adviser has been sentenced after admitting to charges of forging clients’ initials and falsely amending information about medical conditions.
In February, Anthony Norman Wilson was slapped with three charges of making a false document for pecuniary advantage and three charges of dishonestly using a document for pecuniary advantage by the Financial Markets Authority.
Wilson later pleaded guilty to four charges at Auckland District Court, and on Thursday was ordered to repay over $16,000, and sentenced to 150 hours of community work and six months community detention, Fairfax Media reported.
According to the market regulator, Wilson lodged three insurance applications where he had forged clients’ initials. In one case, he changed the information about the client’s pre-existing medical conditions which led one insurer to avoid a claim.
Judge Tim Black tagged the act as a “profound” aggravating factor which caused the claimant “significant distress and hardship.”
FMA general counsel Nick Kynoch supported the decision, saying the offence was a premeditated abuse of trust.
“The relationship between clients and advisers is based on trust and this is critical to the integrity of the sector,” Kynoch told Fairfax.
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