FSA bans five insurance execs and hands out £150,000 fine over fraud
THE Financial Services Authority (FSA) has banned five individuals in relation to insurance fraud and given one director a near-record fine of £150,000.
The FSA said yesterday that the five insurance executives whom it had banned had shown complete disregard for the interests of their customers.
Andrew Jeffery, a director of Jeffery Flanders Limited, was fined £150,000 for failing to put in place adequate insurance policies and knowingly forging documents. The FSA described it as one of the largest ever fines against an insurance broker.
Barrie Duncan Aspden of Orion Direct Limited and Peppercom was banned for using customer money to create a new company, meaning that customers were at risk of being uninsured because their premiums were being misused.
Aspden’s wife Melanie and his sister-in-law Gaenor Clayton were also banned, along with Orion executive Paul Willment, for their roles in the affair. Willment was fined £50,000.
The FSA has sought to toughen up its act in the wake of the financial crisis, and last month it handed out a £320,000 fine to the former finance director of Northern Rock, the first British victim of the credit crunch.
Margaret Cole, director of enforcement and financial crime at the FSA, said: “Individuals holding a role such as that of director must act with integrity as well as with the necessary skill, care and diligence”.