The Financial Conduct Authority has banned a former Blackrock Asset Management Investor Services managing director for performing any regulated function, declaring him to be ‘not fit and proper’ after it was revealed he knowingly did not pay his full train fares.
In a final notice, published today (15 December), the FCA said Jonathan Paul Burrows’s conduct fell short of the standards it expects.
Tracey McDermott, the FCA’s director of enforcement and financial crime, said: “Approved persons must act with honesty and integrity at all times and, where they do not, we will take action.”
On 19 November 2013, Mr Burrows was stopped by a revenue protection officer at the exit gates of London Cannon Street Station and was found to have failed to purchase a valid ticket for his entire journey while travelling on the Southeastern train service from Stonegate railway station, East Sussex.
He was interviewed under caution and admitted to evading his rail fares on a number of occasions.
On the occasions on which Mr Burrows failed to purchase a valid ticket he boarded the London bound train at Stonegate, a rural station with no barriers, without purchasing a ticket.
Once he had arrived in London he exited through the barriers at Cannon Street Station by “tapping out” using an Oyster travel card, paying the maximum fare of £7.20 rather than purchasing the required ticket for £21.50.
Mr Burrows admitted to the FCA that he had evaded his train fare on several occasions and had done so in the knowledge that he had been breaking the law. The FCA does not consider that this is fit and proper behaviour for an approved person.
He also admitted in interviews that he did not disclose his behaviour to his employer.
Although the FCA is not penalising Mr Burrows for failing to inform his employer, it has taken this into account, amongst other things, in deciding what action to take.
peter.walker@ft.com
