Swindon adviser struck off for lying to the FSA

Joseph Anthony Masi, trading as Select Mortgage Services, has had his permissions varied to remove all regulated activities with immediate effect.

As a result Mr Masi's permission no longer includes advising on investments - excluding pension transfers and pension opt outs - advising on regulated mortgage contracts, arranging deals in investments, arranging regulated mortgage contracts, making arrangements with a view to transactions in investments and agreeing to carry on a regulated activity.

The FSA has also required that Mr Masi write to all his clients within 14 days to inform them that he is no longer permitted to carry on regulated activities and then provide the FSA with a copy of the written advice together with a list of all clients to whom such advice has been sent.

The regulator said it had "serious concerns" that Mr Masi had failed to conduct his business with integrity and had failed to satisfy the FSA that he was "fit and proper having regard to all the circumstances, including the need to ensure that your affairs are conducted soundly and prudently and in compliance with proper standards."

The FSA added it was necessary, in order to protect the interests of consumers, for Mr Masi to be struck off immediately.

In 2007 Mr Masi signed a settlement agreement with the FSA in conclusion of an investigation into his firm.

By signing the agreement, Mr Masi undertook, among other things, to obtain sign-off from an external compliance consultant for all mortgage sales for a period of six months.

Following a visit to his firm in March 2009, as part of the FSA's treating customers fairly (TCF) initiative, the regulator requested documentary evidence that Mr Masi had obtained sign-off from an external compliance consultant for all regulated mortgage sales during the relevant period.

He provided the FSA with new business registers covering the relevant period, and informed the FSA that only one regulated mortgage application submitted by his firm had completed during the relevant period.

Mr Masi added he had not obtained external compliance consultant sign-off for that mortgage transaction due to an oversight.

However information obtained by the FSA from mortgage lenders showed that, in fact, 18 regulated mortgage applications submitted by Mr Masi's firm completed during the relevant period.

Furthermore, the information obtained by the FSA showed that overall, at least 48 regulated mortgage applications were submitted by his firm during the relevant period, although a large number did not proceed to completion.

Therefore the information Mr Masi provided in response to the FSA's requests failed to identify all but one of the regulated mortgage applications which completed during the relevant period, and he provided no evidence to the FSA that any regulated mortgage sales during the relevant period were signed off by an external compliance consultant.