The FSA found the firm had failed to pass on client premiums to insurers, leaving clients potentially uninsured. In addition, ICM had used client money to run the day-to-day activities of its business.
As a result of its investigation, the FSA has also banned the company’s two directors Ian Paul Ruff and Jon Uglow Batchelor from conducting any further regulated activities after finding them not fit and proper to work in the general insurance industry.
The FSA found that:
- ICM failed to arrange insurance policies and to pass over premiums to insurers which potentially left around 300 customers without insurance;
- premiums owed to insurers by ICM, during the initial stages of the FSA investigation, were in excess of £35,000 and the Firm was unable to immediately meet those liabilities;
- client money had been misused by ICM leaving consumers at risk; and
- ICM had no Professional Indemnity Insurance cover in place for over a year.
ICM voluntarily agreed to a variation of permission of its Part IV permission on 30 June 2006 which removed all regulated activities from its permission. As a result of a repayment plan between ICM and the intermediaries, the clients are now no longer at risk.
ICM is a small firm that carries out credit and employment references on potential tenants on behalf of landlords and letting agencies. As part of this service, it also offered insurance on buildings and contents, as well as policies that protected landlords against non-payment of rent and the cost of evicting tenants. ICM was authorised by the FSA on 14 January 2005 with permission to hold and control client money and to conduct insurance mediation activities.
