Irish broker disqualified for dipping into client money

Insurance broker Raymond Smyth has been disqualified from managing a regulated financial services provider in Ireland for three years, the Irish Times reports.

Ireland’s Central Bank has also reprimanded his company, Smyths Insurance Brokers Limited of Village Square in Tallaght, and fined it €12,000 (£10,126).

The bank said the broker breached the consumer protection code by debiting €121,250 from client premium accounts over a 27-month period up until September 2010.

The money was transferred to the account of a separate company and to the broker’s office current account.

The transfer was discovered when regulators inspected the firm in October 2010. Raymond Smyth explained what had happened to the regulator and repaid the money into the client accounts the day before the inspection.