Former CBA adviser pleads guilty to forgery

Gillespie pleaded guilty to one “rolled-up charge”, which alleged the forgery of 33 documents from a number of Commonwealth Bank clients to whom he was providing advice between January 2007 and June 2009.

Prior to facing the Magistrates Court, Gillespie received a permanent ban from providing financial advice in 2012 after an ASIC investigation found he “engaged in a series of conscious and deliberate acts” designed to conceal a number of compliance breaches.

These included failing to comply with financial services laws, forging client signatures, creating false file notes, providing inappropriate advice, charging excessive fees and providing misleading information in a marketing letter.

These breaches occurred between January 2007 and June 2009, while Gillespie was a senior financial planner at the Commonwealth Bank’s Broadbeach branch on the Gold Coast.

A sentencing date for Gillespie, whose case is being prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, was set for 12 December 2017 at a mention in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on 3 November this year.

Gillespie was one of a number of Commonwealth FP authorised representatives whose activity spurred a senate inquiry into the licensee and ASIC’s oversight of the sector.