A financial adviser has been fined and banned for lying repeatedly to the Financial Conduct Authority about her qualification status.
Elizabeth Anne Parry made six misleading statements to the FCA between January 2013 and September 2015 claiming she had the qualifications to provide investment advice.
She told the FCA she had repeatedly asked the Chartered Insurance Institute why it had not supplied her with an statement of professional standing.
Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “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.
“We will not tolerate this sort of behaviour.”
In October 2013 Miss Parry submitted a fake SPS, supposedly issued by the CII, to the FCA which would remain valid until January 2014.
She submitted a second fake SPS in May 2014 when the FCA asked her to verify she had obtained the right qualifications.
After an investigation by the FCA, in July 2015 the CII informed the regulator that it had no record of Miss Parry applying for, or being issued with, an SPS.
The CII also told the FCA that Miss Parry had not obtained the necessary Level 4 QCF qualification to provide retail investment advice.
Miss Parry responded by saying the CII had sent her manual SPSs because of issues it was having with its systems and its records were incorrect.
She added that it “simply was not true” that the CII had not issued her with an SPS and that she had records to prove it.
It was not until a compelled interview in November 2015 that Miss Parry admitted her misconduct.
Miss Parry was authorised in May 2006 as a sole trader to conduct investment and mortgage business and, from January 2015, for consumer credit activities.
The FCA said her behaviour amounted to a failure to act with integrity, and banned her from the industry and fined her £109,400.
Miss Parry, who has ceased trading, provided verifiable evidence of serious financial hardship which led to the fine being cut by nearly £50,000.
