The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned and penalized Perry Prowse (Insurance Consultants) Ltd.’s sole director Martin Sarl for grave misconduct and dishonesty as Sarl reportedly used the money paid by some of his clients for their insurance premiums to pay personal and company debts.
The FCA, in its official statement over the Sarl case, said the accused had “failed to pass clients’ premiums to insurers, meaning that some customers were left uninsured without their knowledge.”
“The FCA’s investigation uncovered that Mr. Sarl used money from the firm’s client account to pay both his personal debt, and that of the firm. That was not allowed under the FCA’s Client Money rules, and these funds should have been kept separate,” the FCA commented. “As a result, there was not enough money to transfer the premiums - that his customers had paid to him - to insurers, leaving customers without cover and at risk of having their home, and car insurance claims rejected.”
The FCA also said in the statement that Sarl lied about the incident by saying that there had been a “system glitch”, which caused the payment not to push through. There was also an instance in which a client’s insurance claim had been rejected because they did not have cover in place.
“Mr. Sarl’s customers trusted him to keep their money safe and to secure the insurance cover they needed. Instead, he helped himself to prop up his business and personal finances. He compounded this by lying to his customers,” FCA joint head of enforcement and market oversight head Therese Chambers said. “This left many people at risk of being unable to make a claim should they have needed to. It is right that Mr. Sarl should be banned from the industry.”
The FCA ordered Sarl to pay a £5,021 penalty and banned him from the insurance industry. Originally, the amount to be paid as a penalty was £63,600 but that has been reduced since paying that amount would cause Sarl serious financial hardship.
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