ASIC hands former mortgage funder three-year ban

Trevor John Seymour of Campbelltown in Sydney’s south-west was a director of non-bank lender Provident Capital from 25 May 1998 to 17 December 2013. The lender went into receivership on 3 July 2012, and into liquidation on 24 October that year.

ASIC suspended Provident Capital’s Australian Financial Services Licence on 15 October 2012.

The regulator’s investigation found Mr Seymour breached his obligations as a director of Provident Capital and engaged in conduct that was misleading or deceptive in relation to financial products, by approving a number of documents issued by the lender.

The documents included 15 quarterly and seven benchmark reports issued to ASIC and Australian Executor Trustees Limited. A debenture prospectus in December 2010 issued to raise funds from the public, and information booklets issued in 2012 were also included.

In announcing the ban, ASIC commissioner John Price said directors of financial services companies have a clear responsibility to ensure the company provides accurate and credible information on which investors can rely.

“ASIC will act to remove people who fail in their corporate governance and compliance obligations, for the protection of the public,” he said.

Mr Seymour has been granted permission by ASIC to manage Raintron Pty Ltd (the trustee of his self-managed superannuation fund) and Garde Pty Ltd (a trustee company which acts as an executor of an estate) on the basis that altering the arrangements to accommodate his disqualification is disproportionate to the risk to the public, given the limited activities of these companies.

He is also permitted to act as a director of the trading company of his accountancy practice, Bretnalls NSW Pty Ltd, so long as he is not the sole director and on the basis that he continues to be involved in its day-to-day business.

Mr Seymour has filed an application with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.

Earlier this month, the regulator banned John Sweeney, a former non-executive director of Provident Capital, for failing to comply with financial services laws.