The Upper Tribunal has upheld the FCA’s decisions to ban Stephen Joseph Burdett and James Paul Goodchild from working in financial services.
Burdett and Goodchild previously held senior roles at Synergy Wealth Limited (Synergy) and Westbury Private Clients LLP (Westbury), respectively. The FCA banned the pair from working in regulated financial services for recklessly exposing pension holders to unsuitable investments.
The tribunal also agreed the FCA should impose penalties of £265,071 on Mr Burdett and £47,600 on Mr Goodchild.
Because of Mr Burdett, 232 personal pension funds worth over £10m in total were switched into high-risk investment portfolios that were unsuitable for clients. The portfolios were created and managed by Mr Goodchild at Westbury, with around 38% of overall holdings linked to a single offshore property developer.
Despite knowing the portfolios were high-risk, Mr Burdett allowed Synergy’s customers to receive reports indicating that their money would be placed in low or medium risk portfolios. Mr Goodchild included the misleading terms ‘cautious’ and ‘balanced’ in the names of 2 of the 3 high-risk portfolios, the investigation found.
In addition, Mr Burdett acted as a director of Synergy despite knowing he did not have the required FCA approval to perform that function. He then failed to co-operate with the FCA’s investigation.
To date, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has paid out over £1.4m to victims.
Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “People trusted Mr Burdett and Mr Goodchild with their hard-earned savings and were badly let down. The pair worked together to switch customers’ pensions into obviously unsuitable, high-risk investments.
“They made significant personal profits from their actions. We will not tolerate such conduct and are pleased that the Tribunal agrees.”
