Martin Rigney, a partner and the only adviser working at Topps Rogers, has been handed a £117,330 fine by the watchdog and banned from performing any function related to any regulated activity in the financial services industry.
Sheffield-based independent financial adviser Topps Rogers, which is now in liquidation, was fined £97,600 in February this year for Ucis failings. Some 94 clients invested more than £12m in Ucis under Rigney’s watch.
Rigney advised retail clients to invest in Ucis products without assessing their eligibility or explaining why his recommendations were appropriate. As a result, investors placed “a substantial proportion” of their portfolios in these products.
The FSA pointed out that one of the adviser’s clients put 89% of this portfolio in Ucis while Rigney advised one couple to hold 80% of their portfolio in Ucis to provide their retirement income.
In addition, the regulator said Rigney “showed a serious lack of integrity” when he arranged a Ucis sale after agreeing to stop promoting and advising on the schemes in May 2010. He also failed to tell the customer that the product he recommended had been suspended in 2008.
Finally, the adviser carried out discretionary portfolio management without his customers’ knowledge. He switched some customers investments into Ucis products without obtaining their signatures or notifying them before the transactions.
Tracey McDermott, director of enforcement and financial crime at the FSA, said: “Rigney demonstrated a serious lack of competence by promoting complex, high risk products to his customers when they were clearly not right for his clients’ needs.
“We have made our views on Ucis very clear: these high risk, complex products should not be promoted to the vast majority of retail investors in the UK. We will continue to take tough action against firms and senior management when they mis-sell these high risk products.”
