ASIC launches civil action against Terry McMaster who collapsed in witness box at Hayne commission

The corporate regulator takes civil action against the man who collapsed at the Hayne commission.

Terry McMaster leaves the Federal Court with the aid of paramedics after collapsing while being questioned during the Banking Royal Commission in Melbourne last April.

The corporate regulator alleges collapsed firm Dover Financial Advisers and its director misled clients and wants them fined.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has taken civil penalty action against Dover and its sole director Terry McMaster, who collapsed in the witness box at the banking royal commission last year.

ASIC wants the Federal Court to declare Dover and Mr McMaster broke financial services law and impose fines for misleading and deceptive conduct.

ASIC barrister Bernie Quinn QC said the conduct resulted from the contents of what Dover called its client protection policy, which purported to provide the maximum protections under the law.

“Contrary to the introductory clause they were not the maximum protections available under the law,” he told the court on Wednesday.

ASIC alleged Dover misled and deceived clients between September 2015, when it began using the protection policy, and March 2018, when the company withdrew the policy in response to the regulator’s concerns.

Mr Quinn said the policy was given to more than 19,400 clients. The court heard Dover has admitted it was inaccurate to say the policy provided the maximum protections under the law.

Mr Quinn said the dispute was over whether the client protection policy could have amounted to misleading and deceptive conduct, in the absence of any evidence that clients were in fact misled.

Melbourne-based Dover was one of the largest financial planning groups in Australia, with more than 400 authorised representatives, before it closed a year ago.

ASIC, which began investigating the firm in 2017, cancelled Dover’s financial services licence and Mr McMaster agreed to remove himself permanently from the financial services industry.

AAP