In 2020 Mr Mongelard was ordered to pay restitution of more than £1m to investors after being found guilty of promoting an unauthorised share scheme.

He was authorised by the FCA in 2003 as an investment adviser and went on to work for a number of different firms, according to the FCA’s Register.

Firms included Access Equity Management Limited, Arjent Limited, Beaufort Securities Limited, Falcon Securities (UK) Ltd, Mansion House Securities Ltd, Capital Index Ltd and Montague Pitman Stockbrokers Ltd.

From 2014 he was a director of two companies, M&O and Venor. The two companies operated as a joint business and traded as Gemini, which sold shares in two companies to unsuspecting investors in 2015.

In the 2020 High Court case in which Mr Mongelard was found guilty, the judge said: “Mr Mongelard appears to have taken no steps at all to satisfy himself as to the truth of the statements that were being made to potential investors. Nor was there any basis for him to believe the statements…to be true.

“Rather, Mr Mongelard appears to have been willing to allow and indeed encourage the call operators he employed to make entirely unverified statements, with the sole aim of encouraging investors to subscribe to shares.”

On 6 May 2020, Mr Mongelard was ordered by the High Court to pay to the FCA £1,207,050 to cover the losses suffered by investors on their investments into Gemini.

Mr Mongelard failed to satisfy the order and the regulator made an application to the High Court to petition for his bankruptcy. A bankruptcy order was made against Mr Mongelard on 6 April 2021.

The FCA concluded that Mr Mongelard was “not a fit and proper person to perform any function in relation to any regulated activity carried on by any authorised person, exempt person or exempt professional firm.”

It said the adverse findings by the High Court “demonstrate a clear and serious lack of integrity, such that Mr Mongelard is not fit and proper to perform regulated activities.”