Stuart Ronald Horwell, director of Rugby-based Homewatch UK Limited, gave misleading advice to around 85 customers, promising they could significantly reduce the interest paid on their mortgages.
In reality, customers were likely to end up with substantial debts at the end of their mortgage if they followed Horwell’s advice.
Investigators from the DTI uncovered a series of dishonest and irregular business practices. Between August 2001 and June 2002 Homewatch had no professional indemnity (PI) insurance despite assurances to customers that it did, and could not account for £50,000 - much of which was diverted into Horwell’s personal bank account.
The Consumer Minister Gerry Sutcliffe, said: “The long disqualification period shows how seriously the court takes this sort of deceptive activity.
‘This result should serve as a reminder to dishonest business people that they need to be looking over their shoulders, because DTI investigators will track them down and use all means possible to put them out of action for a long time.”
However, the FSA has caused outrage among brokers by contradicting the DTI’s strong message saying that it would not automatically disallow the adviser from getting authorisation.
Robin Gordon-Walker, spokesman for the FSA, said: “When we’re considering applications to individuals or firms we take into account a number of factors including disqualifications.
“But this doesn’t automatically fail them. It’s like prison. A person can go through a rehabilitation process and we can reassess them. This is a reasonable approach.”
Rod Murdison, proprietor at Murdison & Browning, said: “ I am all for having applications judged on a case-by-case basis but this just sounds wrong.”
Horwell was unavailable for comment.
