In April this year, former Bell Potter Securities adviser Lawson Stuart Donald pleaded guilty to dishonest conduct involving more than $1.7 million following an Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) investigation, and received a two-year suspended sentence.
The investigation found Mr Donald had dishonestly used his position as an employee of Bell Potter with the intention of directly or indirectly gaining an advantage for himself, or someone else, by re-booking share trades or transferring trades from one client account to another.
In July this year, ASIC announced Mr Donald had received a permanent ban from providing financial services.
But on Friday, ASIC announced that following an appeal from the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in consultation with ASIC, the suspended sentence had been quashed and Mr Donald had been sentenced to two years in jail by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal, to be released after one year.
ASIC and the DPP had appealed on the basis that the original sentence had been “manifestly inadequate”, according to ASIC.
Announcing the decision and commenting on the original sentence, the court argued sentences needed to act as a deterrent.
“... the sentence failed to reflect the gravity of the offence and failed in particular to serve as an effective deterrent to other similarly intelligent, competitive professionals in the financial markets...” the court said.
“It has also been repeatedly observed that the real bite of general deterrence takes hold only when a custodial sentence is imposed ... notwithstanding judicial statements to the effect that a suspended sentence is a sentence of imprisonment, the community (including those in ‘white collar’ occupations) might be justifiably forgiven for thinking that an offender who is serving a bond in the community has escaped meaningful punishment,” the court added.
ASIC commissioner Greg Tanzer said the sentence “recognises the seriousness of Mr Donald’s conduct and will serve to deter others from engaging in similar behaviour”.
