The FCA has fined an adviser £63,800 for “lacking honesty and integrity” and banned him from working in financial services.

Former adviser Simon Varley worked at Birmingham based IFA Dickinsons Financial Management Limited, where he held a customer adviser function until January 2013.

Following the Retail Distribution Review in 2012, the FCA introduced rules requiring advisers to hold a minimum level of qualification to be approved for this function. As a result, Varley’s customer adviser function was removed in January 2013.

However, despite this, Varley continued to advise retail customers between January 2013 and September 2017.

The FCA said Varley “repeatedly misled his fellow directors” by providing false information in board meetings about sitting and passing the relevant exams required for him to continue advising.

It also alleged that Varley was falsely claiming that he had applied to the FCA for approval but the regulator had not updated the Financial Services Register.

The FCA said no application was ever made.

Varley has been prohibited by the FCA for knowingly “performing a controlled function” without prior approval and for providing investment advice to retail customers without the qualifications or approval to do so.

The regulator found that he failed to act with integrity as a director and compliance oversight, controlled function holder and is therefore not a fit and proper person.

FCA Market oversight and enforcement executive director Mark Steward says: “Mr Varley deliberately lied about his position and his misconduct continued for a number of years, potentially creating a risk of loss to customers.

“He continued to abuse his position of trust as a director, proving that he lacks both honesty and integrity and poses a serious risk to consumers and to confidence in the financial system. Today’s ban should act as a deterrent to other senior individuals who abuse a position of trust.”

The FCA said Varley also “knowingly facilitated the provision of false information to Dickinsons’ professional indemnity insurance providers” about the qualifications he held, in order to be insured to advise retail investors after 2013.

This false information led to the potential risk of loss to consumers, as Varley was not qualified to provide the advice and therefore his advice was deemed to be uninsured. His actions led to Dickinsons going into voluntary liquidation and being dissolved.

In addition to this, as part of his compliance oversight function, Varley was required to provide regulatory information to the FCA in Dickinsons’ Retail Mediation Activities Returns.

In discharging this responsibility, Varley knowingly misled the FCA into believing that only one person at Dickinsons was providing retail investment advice to customers instead of two.

He also provided explanations to the FCA that were untrue to conceal his own misconduct.