Insurance Times’s list of the general insurance brokers who have been banned by the FSA
David Marriott, ex-chief executive of Target Underwriting Ltd (Target) and Professional Insurance Select LTD (PISL)
Marriott was banned on 2 September 2010 for failing to segregate and protect money from clients’ insurance premiums. Marriott used the client money account to support both failing firms’ day-to-day finances. He also used client money to give himself and his staff bonuses and salary increases, He also purchased a £27,500 car for a fellow director and a £35,000 car for himself with the money. His actions led to a deficit of £570,841 in the firms’ client money accounts.
Andrew Jeffery, ex-director of Jeffery Flanders (Consulting) Ltd
Jeffery was banned and fined £150,000 – one of the largest fines imposed on an individual for insurance fraud – on 12 August 2010.
Jeffery recklessly failed to put in place insurance policies appropriately or in some cases at all, despite collecting payments from customers.
Barrie Duncan Aspden, Orion Direct Ltd and Peppercom Plc
Aspden was banned on 1 April 2010 for acting dishonestly and without integrity. The FSA said that Aspden, a registered bankrupt, knowingly used approximately £300,000 of Orion client money to finance the creation of a new company ‘Click the Pepper’, an online motor insurance site, which traded as Peppercom.
Aspden’s fellow directors – his wife Melanie Aspden, his sister-in-law Gaenor Clayton and family friend Paul Willment – were also banned.
Matthew Sixsmith, ex- director of Bridgewater House UK
Sixmith, who was director of Manchester-based mortgage and general insurance firm Bridgewater, was banned after losing approximately £85,000 of customers’ money due to a failure to comply with the FSA’s client money rules. Sixmith dealt mainly in the subprime mortgage market, but also arranged life and critical illness insurance in connection with those mortgages.
Graham Darby, ex-director of Ambrose Darby
Darby was banned on 6 July 2009 for failing to control the business of the firm adequately. Darby, who was diagnosed in July 2008 with a severe medical condition, did not conduct client money reconciliations as required and lacked a full understanding of the firm’s responsibilities regarding the handling of client money.
Faraz Ahmed Siddique and Waqas Ahmed Siddique, Aston Sterling Insurance Services Ltd
Brothers Faraz and Waqas Siddique were banned in 2009 because they lied to cover up the latter’s criminal conviction.
Waqas Siddique applied to the FSA for approval to perform controlled functions at Aston Sterling Insurance Services Ltd in April 2007, one month after being charged with conspiracy to defraud in March 2007. On his FSA application, he signed a declaration that he had no previous criminal convictions and was not the subject of any current criminal proceedings.
After Waqas Siddique’s conviction in June 2008, Faraz told the FSA that his brother had resigned and applied to take over the controlled functions. But he did not notify the FSA of his brother’s criminal conviction, despite being aware that it was the reason for his brother’s resignation from Aston Sterling.
