The FCA will go ahead with a ban on a former insurance broker on the grounds that he is "not a fit and proper person" after the Upper Tribunal ruled in the regulator's favour.
Stephen Robert Allen was an insurance broker specialising in professional indemnity risks.

On 25 July 2012 the FSA told Mr Allen it intended to ban him.

The regulator believed he was not a fit and proper person due to fees he had allegedly charged improperly to an insurance client.

He referred the case to the tribunal, which has now ruled in the FCA's favour.

{desktop}{/desktop}{mobile}{/mobile}

An FCA statement read: "The tribunal reached this decision because Mr Allen was found to have submitted a forged document in evidence and to have knowingly given untrue evidence before the High Court in another matter. The tribunal also based its decision on the fact that Mr Allen had attempted to mislead the FCA as to the full contents of the judgment from the High Court trial."

Georgina Philippou, acting director of the FCA's enforcement and market oversight division, said: "We have taken action against Mr Allen because, as the tribunal findings have made clear, he failed to demonstrate the standards of behaviour we expect.

"Those approved by us to engage in financial services have to be fit and proper, and an important aspect of this is honesty – including towards the FCA, towards customers and towards the tribunal and the courts."

In support of his case, Mr Allen produced a single redacted page from a High Court judgment handed down on 16 December 2011 (in which Mr Allen was the claimant) with the intention of discrediting a witness due to give evidence against Mr Allen for the FCA.

The FCA said Mr Allen "refused to provide a full, unredacted copy of the judgment to the FCA despite being asked to do so by the FCA".

The FCA said that it had obtained a copy of the judgment from the court transcribers and "discovered that the judge had found that Mr Allen had knowingly advanced and given untrue evidence to the High Court which included submitting a forged document as evidence."

Officials added: "As a result, the FCA obtained permission from the Tribunal to rely on the findings in the High Court judgment and Mr Allen's subsequent attempts to conceal these from the FCA as grounds to prohibit him, in place of the FCA's case concerning insurance fees."

He will be banned from performing any function in relation to a regulated activity.