A former Commonwealth Bank financial planner who pleaded guilty to forging clients' signatures has been given a $3,000 fine and will not have a conviction recorded against his name.
Ricky David Gillespie, a former Queensland-based planner who was permanently banned from the industry five years ago, was sentenced in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday after entering a guilty plea in October. Mr Gillespie pleaded guilty to one rolled-up charge alleging the forgery of 33 documents.
BusinessDay applied for a copy of the magistrate's sentencing remarks on Wednesday, but these were not yet available at the time of writing.
Mr Gillespie, one of a group of CBA planners who were banned from the industry following a scandal in the bank's financial planning arm, was previously found by the corporate watchdog to have forged clients' signatures, provided inappropriate advice, and not complied with financial services laws.
The sentence handed down this week only related to the forgery of documents.
Nationals Senator John Williams, who has long argued for tougher penalties for white collar crimes, questioned how big a deterrent the sentence delivered to Mr Gillespie would be.
"We want to stamp out white collar crime in this country. He pleads guilty to forging 33 documents and gets a $3,000 fine. I just ask the question, what sort of deterrent is that?," Senator Williams said.
"People will be scratching their heads."
Jeff Morris, a whistleblower from CBA's planning arm, said he had represented a couple who were victims of Mr Gillespie, who had ultimately received $235,000 in compensation from the bank after a drawn-out bid to get their money back.
"Bearing in mind that he was in a fiduciary position when he forged those signatures, and the years of misery that ensued for so many people getting their money back, the penalty seems quite paltry," Mr Morris said.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which banned Mr Gillespie in 2012, is considering the sentencing decision.
The watchdog alleged that the misconduct took place between January 2007 and mid 2009, while Mr Gillespie was working as a senior financial planner on the Gold Coast.
In 2012, when Mr Gillespie was banned by the watchdog for "serious" misconduct, ASIC said he had tried to disguise his misconduct from the bank's policies.
Following Mr Gillespie's banning, CBA reviewed the advice he had provided to each of his 57 clients, and compensated 33 of them, with a total of $2.2 million in advice compensation. The bank also refunded $88,000 in financial advice fees and interest to 22 of his clients, ASIC said.
CBA last month noted that it had informed ASIC of its concerns about Mr Gillespie's behaviour in 2009 and 2010, and it had assisted ASIC throughout the investigation.
