Unlicensed 'advisers' get suspended prison sentences
Three people who ran an investment advice business without being licensed have been given prison sentences, although all were fully suspended.
Marianna Casella and Peter Stokes, both from Queensland, and Ken McDowell from Victoria were sentenced in the Brisbane Magistrates Court last week following an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Casella and Stokes were both sentenced to four months imprisonment (fully suspended), with $1,000, two-year good behaviour bonds, while McDowell was sentenced to seven months imprisonment (fully suspended) with the same behaviour bond.
Each was found guilty of carrying on an investment advice business between the beginning of 2001 and mid 2002 without the appropriate licences. The trio appealed the original verdict, made in July 2006, but the decision was upheld in July this year.
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