Ex-adviser pleads guilty to theft

In a statement, ASIC said Bathurst-based Keith Flowers had pleaded guilty to one count of theft and one count of acting dishonestly as a company director at the Downing Centre District Court.

Mr Flowers was the former director of two liquidated companies, Flowers Financial Management and Flowers Financial Group. ASIC said he had "specialised in providing financial advice to the medical profession".

ASIC said in 2011, when he was a registered financial adviser Mr Flowers had engaged in a scheme to raise money for a proposed IPO of a company named Avior Australia. 

As part of the scheme Mr Flowers established a trust account to which he was the sole signatory to collect funds from clients. 

He pleaded guilty to a charge that between 2011 and 2012 he used his position as a director of Flowers Financial Management dishonestly by causing the transfer/withdrawal of $179,500 of seed capital intended for the IPO.

Mr Flowers also pleaded guilty to a charge that between April and May 2012, he committed larceny by withdrawing the $30,000 raised for the failed IPO after the float was cancelled.

"Mr Flowers did not return the funds to investors but stole the money and transferred it to accounts for his own benefit," ASIC said.

Mr Flowers had been permanently banned from financial services by ASIC in 2014 and was made bankrupt in 2012. He will be sentenced in April 2021.