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Adviser banned after lying to FCA six times over fake qualifications

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  • 01/09/2016
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Adviser banned after lying to FCA six times over fake qualifications
A mortgage and investment adviser has been banned from trading for ‘lying repeatedly’ about her qualifications and using fake documents in an attempt to deceive the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Elizabeth Anne Parry acted to mislead the regulator six times between January 2013 and September 2015 by claiming to be qualified to provide investment advice.

Parry only came clean when she was forced to face the regulator in an interview in November last year, where she admitted to lying about her qualifications.

Parry was authorised in May 2006 as a sole trader to conduct investment and mortgage business and, from January 2015, for consumer credit activities.

However since 2013, retail investment advisers have been required to hold a Statement of Professional Standing (SPS) and achieve the relevant professional qualifications, as part of changes following the Retail Distribution Review.

Parry, claiming to hold an SPS, told the regulator she had engaged in numerous dealings with her professional body, the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), to question them on why she had not been sent her proof of the qualification.

To satisfy the regulator, the disgraced adviser produced a fake SPS in October 2013 which she claimed had been issued by the CII, valid until January 2014. When asked again in May 2014 to prove she had the correct qualifications, Parry lied once more and submitted a second fake document.

Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said behaviour of this type would not be tolerated.

“We raised the minimum qualification standards in order to protect consumers from financial harm, and Miss Parry’s behaviour demonstrates a clear disregard of those standards and her duty to be honest with the FCA,” he said.

Parry received a discounted fine of just under £110,000 after proving financial hardship. The original fine stood at around £157,000.

Steward said the FCA considered that Parry’s behaviour amounted to a failure to act with integrity, and that she posed a risk to consumers and to the integrity of the financial system.

Parry ceased to be authorised in November 2015.

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