Federal Court upholds ASIC appeal over banned adviser

The Federal Court has set aside the decision of the AAT not to ban financial adviser Robert Hutchison following an appeal from ASIC. The AAT ruled that Mr Hutchison breached his contractual obligations with his licensee – RI Advice Group – by not passing on the money he received directly from his clients to RI Advice.

However, the AAT found that sections of the Corporations Act prohibiting dishonest, misleading and deceptive conduct did not apply to this conduct because it related only to the agreement between Mr Hutchison and RI Advice, not the service being provided to clients.

“The Court disagreed, confirming the broad scope of these prohibitions,” ASIC said in a statement. “The Court confirmed that an indirect connection between a person’s dishonest or misleading conduct and a financial product or service is sufficient for the prohibitions to apply.”

The matter has been remitted back to the AAT to have the matter re-determined.

Mr Hutchison was permanently banned from providing financial services on 11 June 2017.