Former Sunshine Coast financial adviser Brett Gordon banned following fraud conviction

A former Sunshine Coast financial adviser has been banned from ever practising again after he was convicted of fraud and jailed for ripping off clients and taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from their super funds.

Sunshine Coast financial adviser Brett Andrew Gordon. Picture - file.

A former Sunshine Coast financial adviser has been banned from ever practising again after he was convicted of fraud and jailed for ripping off clients and taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from their super funds.

ASIC has permanently banned former financial adviser Brett Andrew Gordon from providing financial services and engaging in credit activities after he was convicted of fraud offences.

In August 2023, Gordon, 55 at the time, was jailed after pleading guilty to nine counts of fraud from when he was the director of Refocus Financial Group Pty Ltd and Diverse Capital Management Pty Ltd and withdrew from his clients’ self managed super fund accounts from 2015 to 2018.

Gordon was sentenced to six years’ prison, with a probationary term of 18 months.

The court heard Gordon used the money, a total of $652,500, to pay for personal debts, credit card debts and tax.

Commonwealth prosecutor Lindsay Glenn said Gordon became a registered financial adviser in January 2005.

“The defendant was a financial adviser who advised at least 13 clients to invest in a property development company called Diverse Capital Management Proprietary Limited, which was owned and controlled by him,” he said.

“At least $1.362 million was invested.”

Last year the court heard Gordon turned his life around by becoming a gym owner and joining a Christian church community after moving back to his hometown of Bendigo.

Under the Corporations Act and the National Consumer Credit Protection Act, ASIC may permanently ban a person from the financial services and credit industries if they are convicted of fraud.

Consequently, based on his conviction, Mr Gordon has been banned permanently.

The ban prohibits Mr Gordon from providing any financial services and engaging in any credit activities, controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business or engages in credit activities, and performing any function involved in carrying on a financial services business or engaging in credit activities, including as an officer, manager, employee or contractor.

Mr Gordon’s ban is recorded in ASIC’s Banned and Disqualified Register.

Mr Gordon has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.