How it all began.
The case into Chapel Road was originally triggered by the actions of banned financial planner Robyn Ann-Carrolle Cochrane, despite the fact that she had no formal connections with that dealer group.
Cochrane first came to the attention of Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) when breaches of compliance were reported by her dealer group, Financial Wisdom to ASIC.
As a result Cochrane was charged with fraud and acting without a licence in 1998 and last month she was sentenced to a four-year jail term.
Cochrane's son, Steven Michael Cochrane was also involved in the planning industry as a proper authority holder with Chapel Road and it was his subsequent actions which resulted in ASIC sniffing round the doors of that dealer group.
Following charges of misappropriating client money and the cancellation of her proper authority with Financial Wisdom, ASIC accepted an enforceable undertaking from Robyn Cochrane in October 1998 detailing she would not work as an investment adviser for ten years.
But nearly one year later Cochrane was banned for life from acting as a representative of a securities dealer when ASIC discovered she had continued to provide investment advice to former clients without a proper authority.
In light of Cochrane's actions ASIC stepped in to take a closer look, and its attention was drawn to Cochrane's son.
Steven Cochrane was also a former Financial Wisdom representative, but had become a proper authority holder with Chapel Road when that group received its dealer's licence in 1997.
Following Robyn Cochrane's enforceable undertaking and ban, a number of her clients had been transferred to Steven Cochrane.
ASIC later found that through her son, Robyn Cochrane had continued to advise her former clients and it was this continuation of giving unlicensed advice that resulted in Robyn Cochrane receiving the four-year jail term.
ASIC's further investigation into the activities of the two led to an immediate life ban in January 2000 for Steven Cochrane.
According to ASIC NSW director of deposit-taking, insurance, superannuation and consumer division Lucienne Layton, the reason Steven Cochrane was also banned in such a harsh manner was due to the fact he gave tacit support to his mother's actions.
"Steven Cochrane allowed his mother to work out of his business and in doing so gave credibility to her actions," Layton says.
"In many ways with the Financial Services Reform Bill coming on board there will be even more of a focus on compliance and we are increasing our own focus on this. This is a message to the industry, take a look at it, we are."
AUTHOR
Jason Szollos
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