Peter Carron, a former financial adviser at St James’s Place Wealth Management, has been fined £300,000 and banned for conduct that breached Principle 1 of the statements of principle for approved persons.

Mr Carron advised 11 clients to invest £2.4 million in three companies of which he was a director and majority shareholder and failed to disclose fully his interest in the companies to the clients investing in those companies.

The investors subsequently lost £2.2 million when the companies went into liquidation.

The FCA found that Mr Carron:

• misled investors by assuring them that they were guaranteed a return on their investments;
• advised his clients to invest in the companies regardless of whether the investment was appropriate for their needs, without disclosing his interest and without warning them of the potential risks;
• continued to encourage his clients to invest, even when he knew that his companies were in financial difficulties; and
• led clients to believe that the investments were approved by his employer, when they were not.

The FCA viewed Mr Carron’s actions as particularly serious as the misconduct took place over five years, Mr Carron acted recklessly by exposing his clients to extreme risks and his sole objective was to generate funding for the companies, not to provide suitable advice to clients.

The FCA did not criticise his employer, which has paid £1.9 million in compensation to clients.

Copies of the

final notice = http://bit.ly/Z96r83

and

press release  =http://bit.ly/1r2HRQL