ASIC this morning announced that the full bench of the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by Park Trent Properties Group Pty Ltd from the judgment acting Justice Ronald Sackville handed down in October 2015.
ASIC launched legal proceedings in November 2014 against Park Trent, who by the time of the trial in June 2015 had advised more than 860 members of the public to establish and switch funds into an SMSF.
Final orders were handed down in November 2015 and an appeal was launched on 26 February 2016.
In a unanimous decision delivered by Justice Mark Leeming yesterday, the court found that no error had been made by the trial judge in refusing an application by Park Trent to amend its defence on the sixth day of the nine-day trial.
ASIC said that even if the amendment had been allowed, the regulation upon which Park Trent sought to rely would not have applied to the advice of Park Trent, which was the subject of the proceedings.
Park Trent will be required to pay ASIC’s costs of the appeal.
“ASIC welcomes the dismissal of the appeal. ASIC’s action against Park Trent has highlighted there are serious consequences for property spruikers who break the law by providing unlicensed financial product advice,” ASIC commissioner Greg Tanzer said.
Ahhh yes… Those serious consequences of being banned from providing advice legally which they were not doing in the first place.
Either shut them down or this is far from a win for ASIC.
Well done ASIC and the NSW Supreme Court. There is absolutely nothing wrong with SMSFs using LRBAs – but these ‘property marketing firms’ masquerading as a supposed ‘financial advisory firms’ must all be stopped! A great next step and quick way to drive them our of the market would be to see ASIC completely outlaw any form of kick-back and/or incentive offered by property developers, real estate agents and lenders, on any property purchase or loan, made to an SMSF using a LRBA.