Adelaide adviser convicted of falsifying documents

An Adelaide adviser has been sentenced to three months imprisonment for falsifying documents offered to an ASIC investigation.

Kevin Moreton Pearce pleaded guilty in the Adelaide Magistrates Court where he received three months imprisonment, but will serve out a two-year good behaviour bond. The latest sentencing follows ASIC's banning of Pearce from representing a securities dealer in 1999 for a period of five years.

The charges relate to an investigation undertaken by ASIC into Pearce's recommendations to clients that they invest money in the Golconda Resources scheme, which then channeled money into the Queensland based Wattle Group.

It is believed a number of advisers were being investigated in relation to inappropriate recommendations to invest money in Golconda, which raised more than $10 million from 200 South Australian investors.

In the course of the investigations, Pearce was asked to produce a number of documents demonstrating the legal obligations of his recommendations had been met. In at least one document, a spokesperson for ASIC says, he had forged a client's signature which purported to agree that Pearce had disclosed the fees of the Golconda investment. The client recognised that the signature was forged, and insisted that Pearce had not disclosed the fee information.

According to ASIC regional commissioner in South Australia Karen Axford, this is the fourth action since November that ASIC has taken to achieve compliance with its notices.

"Where people fail to comply with lawful requirements of ASIC during the course of an investigation, or provide false information in response to a lawful requirement, we will take appropriate enforcement action to achieve compliance," she says.