The Full Federal Court has dismissed an appeal by Mr Mervyn Ross Tarrant of Albion Park, New South Wales, to overturn his seven-year banning from providing financial services.

Mr Tarrant was the sole director and authorised representative of Tarrants Financial Consultants Pty Ltd (TFC), a financial services firm in Wollongong which invested more than $23 million of its clients' funds in Astarra Strategic Fund (formerly known as the Alpha Strategic Fund) , a managed investment scheme promoted by Trio Capital Limited and Shawn Richard.

In dismissing the appeal, the Full Federal Court found that a number of Mr Tarrant's appeal grounds were not reviewable by the Court on appeal, while the remaining grounds, upon review by the Court, did not identify any error of law by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).

Mr Tarrant was also ordered to pay ASIC's costs.

ASIC Deputy Chairman Mr Peter Kell welcomed the decision of the Full Federal Court, noting that ASIC's original decision to ban Mr Tarrant had now withstood a number of legal challenges.

'The decision to remove people from providing financial services is not taken lightly. However, Mr Tarrant's conduct breached numerous financial services laws and resulted in a significant loss to his trusting clients. To protect the investing public, it is appropriate that he be removed from providing financial services for a lengthy period', Mr Kell said.

Read the Full Federal Court's judgment

Background

On 25 November 2011, an ASIC delegate banned Mr Tarrant from providing financial services for seven years.  Mr Tarrant's application to the AAT for review of ASIC's decision was unsuccessful and the AAT affirmed the banning on 20 December 2013 (refer to 14-003MR for background). An appeal to the Full Federal Court was heard on 24 and 25 November 2014 and the judgment was handed down on 6 February 2015.

As a result of the Full Federal Court's decision, Mr Tarrant remains banned from providing financial services until 28 November 2018.