Bristow banned for six years

The long-running dispute between Melbourne financial adviser Ian Bristow and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in the fall-out from the Westpoint collapse took a new turn on Friday when Bristow and his son were both banned by the regulator from providing financial services.

Bristow, of Warrandyte in Victoria was banned for six years while his son Mathew was banned for three years.

Announcing the bannings last week, ASIC said it had followed an investigation that found that Bristow had “operated five unregistered management investment schemes through his company Earning Pty Ltd between May, 2006, and March, 2008”.

It said that a company in which Bristow was a director, Salarypackaging.com.au, was also found to have operated one of the five schemes between December, 2005, and May, 2006.

ASIC said its investigation had also found that Bristow “dishonestly facilitated the transfer of three clients’ investment funds into new investment products namely Westpoint Mezzanine products, prior to providing financial advice in November, 2005, and without clients’ authority to do so”.

It also said that the investigation had found that Bristow “engaged in deceptive conduct when recommending high risk products without providing a full explanation of the risks and breached undertakings given to ASIC on 31 January, 2008, and to the Federal Court on 5 February, 2008”.

The regulator said that Andrew Bristow was found to have operated the unregistered managed investment schemes and breached undertakings to ASIC.