The Upper Tribunal has upheld the Financial Conduct Authority’s decision to ban Stephen Joseph Burdett and James Paul Goodchild from working in financial services.
Burdett and Goodchild previously held senior roles at Synergy Wealth and Westbury Private Clients, respectively.
The FCA banned the pair from working in regulated financial services, after it found the pair culpable for “recklessly exposing pension holders to unsuitable investments”, according to a statement by the regulator.
The Tribunal also found that it was appropriate for the FCA to impose penalties of £265,071 on Burdett and £47,600 on Goodchild.
Due to actions taken by Burdett, 232 personal pension funds worth over £10m were switched into high-risk investment portfolios. The portfolios were created and managed by Goodchild at Westbury, with around 38 per cent of overall holdings linked to a single offshore property developer.
Despite his knowledge that the portfolios were high-risk, Burdett allowed Synergy’s customers to receive reports indicating that their money would be placed in low or medium risk portfolios. Goodchild included the misleading terms ‘cautious’ and ‘balanced’ in the names of two of the three high-risk portfolios.
In addition, Burdett acted as a director of Synergy despite knowing he did not have the required FCA approval to perform that function. He also failed to co-operate with the FCA’s investigation.
Since an intervention by the FCA in 2016, both the Synergy and Westbury firms have been dissolved.
In January, the FCA’s decision to impose a £2m fine and lifetime ban on the ‘corrupt and dishonest’ pension adviser Darren Reynolds was upheld by an upper tribunal
