Integratec halts education fraud attempt

A caseof attempted fraud has surfaced with training and education providerIntegratecalleging a woman has forged education qualifications in an attempt to dishonestly enter the industry.

An employment agency recently contacted Integratec managing director John Prowse regarding a client seeking job placement in the industry, who claimed she had completed Diploma of Financial Planning (DFP) modules one, two and three, through Integratec.

The areas covered in DFP 1-3 include Entry Level Competencies, Risk Management, and Investment Planning.

The woman in question produced two certificates to vouch for her claims, one relating to the Entry Level Competencies studies and the other for Risk Management.

The recruitment agency questioned the authenticity of the qualifications and contacted Prowse who discovered the woman had passed the Entry Level Competencies module through the training house last year, but recently had failed the Risk Management module.

Prowse says the woman had never enrolled in Investment Planning, let alone successfully completed it.

With no clear precedent to work with, there continues to be discussion over which industry or national body should take on the matter.

“I’m not exactly sure of the legal position with this. But the main thing now is that a specific ruling should be made for cases such as these, where people claim a qualification they don’t hold,” Prowse says.

Integratec has since referred the case to theAustralian Securities and Investments Commission(ASIC), which says it is currently examining the situation but will not comment further until a decision has been reached.

“It’s an objective of theFinancial Planning Associationand the regulators for financial planning to be regarded as a proper profession, and part of that needs to be low tolerance of this sort of behaviour,” Prowse says.

“My advice to dealer groups now is make sure you see original copies of all certificates.”