The Financial Services Authority has fined a financial adviser £117,330 for advising clients to invest in unregulated collective investment schemes (UCIS).
Martin Edward Rigney was a partner and sole adviser at Sheffield-based advisory firm Topps Rogers. He has also been banned from performing any function in relation to regulated activity in the financial services industry.
Under his watch, Topps Rogers advised 94 customers to invest over £12m in UCIS.
This is the nineteenth enforcement case against an advisory firm by the FSA over UCIS failings since 2011.
Mr Rigney advised clients to invest in UCIS without assessing their eligibility or explaining why his recommendations were suitable. One client invested 89 per cent of his investment portfolio into UCIS while a retired couple invested 80 per cent of their investment portfolio in UCIS to provide a retirement income.

He also continued to advise clients on UCIS despite agreeing with the FSA in 2008 to stop promoting and advising on the schemes.
Mr Rigney also carried out discretionary portfolio management without his customers' knowledge. He switched customers' investments into UCIS without notifying them or obtaining their signatures prior to making the transactions.
Tracey McDermott, director of enforcement and financial crime at the FSA, said: "Martin Rigney demonstrated a serious lack of competence by promoting complex, high risk products to his customers when they were clearly not right for his clients' needs.
"He also acted without integrity by continuing to promote UCIS when he had no permission to do so, and arranging UCIS sales without his customers' knowledge. His actions show a fundamental disregard for the interests of his customers."
Topps Rogers is now in liquidation and Mr Rigney is bankrupt.