A firm has had its complaint against the Financial Conduct Authority after it issued a fine because it did not submit its Gabriel return in time, denied.
The individual involved complained that they did not know they had to press the ‘submit’ button in order to complete the process.
According to the complaint lodged to the Financial Services Complaints Commissioner, the individual had already logged onto the system, saved and validated the return in time but did not submit it until 10 days after the due date.
Responding to the complaint, complaints commissioner Antony Townsend said the individual called the FCA to seek assistance with his return but while he was on the phone the system timed out.
Mr Townsend said: “The call recording clearly shows that the FCA representative advised you to log on again, press the ‘select all’ button and then press ‘submit’. The telephone call then terminated.
“I can only assume that when you next logged on, your failure to submit the return was a genuine error, for which I have sympathy, but which is not the fault of the FCA.”
The firm also received two reminders that the return had not been submitted, but neither received a response.
Earlier this month the FCA agreed to return a late fee to someone who forgot to click the submit button on their Gabriel return because the date had been entered, validated and saved by the deadline.
Mr Townsend said he had previously asked the FCA to exercise more discretion in some cases of late Gabriel returns.
damian.fantato@ft.com
