A Tasmanian-based company and its director have been restrained from providing financial product advice for ten years following action taken by ASIC.

The Federal Court of Australia, in Melbourne, made final orders today by consent restraining Oxford Investments Tasmania Pty Ltd (Oxford Investments) and its sole director, Mr Steven Nigel Moore of North Hobart for ten years from carrying on any business of providing financial product advice and providing financial product advice consisting of:

• opinions regarding the trading of securities or derivatives;

• recommendations regarding strategies to be employed in the trading of securities or derivatives; and

• opinions regarding price or trading signals discernible from historical trading data.

The Court declared that between January 2004 and March 2006, Oxford Investments and Mr Moore provided financial product advice without holding the necessary Australian financial services licence. This advice was given to at least 14 members of the public during training courses conducted by the defendants.

The Court also found that between April 2003 and December 2004, Oxford Investments and Mr Moore engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in relation to financial services, contrary to the ASIC Act 2001 (the Act). Injunctions were ordered restraining the company and Mr Moore from engaging in such conduct for a period of ten years.

Investors who attended the training course can rely upon the declarations made by the Court to assist in applications they may wish to make for compensation under the Act.

‘The Court has found that the business conducted by Oxford Investments and Mr Moore constituted the provision of financial product advice and that some of the people who received and paid for this advice were misled’, said ASIC’s Executive Director of Enforcement, Ms Jan Redfern.

Background

Between July 2003 and January 2006, Oxford Investments and Mr Moore conducted training courses in relation to trading futures contracts on the Sydney Futures Exchange. More than a dozen people, the majority of whom live in the Hobart area, attended the courses and received training materials and a computer software program. Oxford Investments charged the course attendees between $33,000 and $40,000 each for the training and software.

During the courses, Mr Moore stated opinions and made recommendations that could reasonably be regarded as being intended to influence the course attendees’ decisions on trading in the SFE SPI Index Futures contract. Mr Moore also made incorrect and misleading statements to certain individuals relating to the amount of money he had made in trading financial products. Neither of the defendants hold, or have ever held financial services licences, or have been authorised representatives of a licence holder. ASIC filed proceedings in the Federal Court against the defendants on 17 November 2007.