IFA jailed for commissions scam

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) says Croydon-based Philip Bates used his businesses, Anderson Owen and Transtone Consulting, to sell financial products to over 100 customers who did not ask for them and pocketing the commission paid. It says Bates would set up a product for a customer without telling them, or in some cases would purchase products that were not needed by a customer in order to access up-front payments. After his businesses went into liquidation and FSA authorisation was withdrawn, Bates fled the country, preventing the insurance firms from using a claw-back clause to recl...