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A former St.George Bank BDM has been banned from engaging in credit activity and providing financial services for five years for financial mismanagement of his own affairs.
An investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has found that Todd Erwin Butler lodged two home loan applications for himself in late 2017 and early 2018 that were declined after the bank identified that false documents had been provided in support of both applications.
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According to ASIC, for one application, the liabilities were understated.
ASIC also found that Mr Butler wrote 44 valueless cheques from his personal account over a five-year period from 2012 to 2017 totalling just over $410,000.
The corporate regulator was concerned that one of the valueless cheques enabled Mr Butler to present an inaccurate asset position to a bank in an attempt to secure a bank loan.
It said that Mr Butler’s conduct was “limited to financial mismanagement of his own affairs, not of clients”.
“Mr Butler accepted that he signed a loan document, which showed an untrue asset position and wrote cheques knowing that the bank account may not have had that amount of money in it,” ASIC said.
ASIC’s investigations specifically found that Mr Butler:
- Did not provide truthful information about his personal financial position to two banks when applying for home loans;
- Failed to acknowledge the financial benefit he obtained by presenting valueless cheques; and
- Demonstrated conduct in his own financial affairs, which is inappropriate and unfitting for a person engaging in credit activities or financial services.
ASIC has determined that the ban on Mr Butler from both engaging in credit activity and from the provision of financial services were appropriate due to Mr Butler’s experience in the financial industry and the likelihood that he would contravene a financial services law or credit law in the future.
Mr Butler was a business development manager at Westpac subsidiary St.George Bank from March 2016 to May 2018.
He worked at various other financial institutions for 23 years prior to this, including HSBC Bank, Firstmac, Centre Point Lending Solutions, and National Mortgage Company.
However, he is currently not working in the financial industry.
Mr Butler has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.
His banning orders have been recorded on ASIC’s Banned and Disqualified Register.
[Related: AAT upholds ban on former director of credit business]
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