FCA bans two advisers for pension fund misuse

However it cannot fine either individual because they were not approved persons at the time of the misconduct.

Mark Kelly provided financial services to UK customers under the name PCD Wealth and Pensions Management, which arranged for over 350 customers to be advised and invested nearly £24 million of customers’ funds in potentially unsuitable investments. PCD also failed to declare to customers the fees it was receiving from a number of these investments.

Kelly invested customers’ pension funds in risky investments without their knowledge or consent, and tried to prevent customers from discovering where their funds had been invested.

He also received money from product providers taken directly out of customers’ investments without their knowledge, which was paid directly into a bank account in his name.

Patrick Gray provided investment advice to at least five customers in the knowledge that he had no qualifications or training to do so.

He also provided customers with misleading information in relation to costs and charges and arranged for customers to sign incomplete investment forms despite being aware of the risk that fees could later be added to the forms (and taken from customers’ funds) without their knowledge.

Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “These two individuals misused pension funds, endangering the retirement incomes of hundreds of people. While further investigations continue, the FCA considers it necessary to prohibit them to help protect consumers.”