Nigerian scam financial adviser jailed - Business - www.smh.com.au




Nigerian scam financial adviser jailed
November 4, 2004

A former financial adviser who swindled investors out of more than $1 million has been jailed for five years and three months.

County Court Judge Thomas Wodak ordered 58-year-old Robert Andrew Street to serve a minimum term of four years.

Street pleaded guilty to five counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception between September 2000 and August 2002.

The judge said Street's five victims were duped into investing sums of between $20,000 and $620,000.

Street, of suburban Mitcham, obtained $1,039,910 as a financial adviser while acting for Grosvenor Securities Pty Ltd, a licensed securities dealer.

He then transferred the money overseas after being approached by a person claiming to be a Nigerian government representative.

The judge said Street persuaded his victims to part with their cash while giving financial planning advice on retirement and superannuation schemes, wealth creation and other aspects of investment.

He said Street had suffered from bipolar disorder for more than a decade at the time of the offences.

He added: "I regard that as a serious psychiatric illness short of insanity."

But the gravity of Street's offences was illustrated by the fact that some of the people he cheated were friends, he said.

The court heard that Street transferred the money overseas after receiving a proposal from an unnamed person purporting to be a representative of a Nigerian government committee.

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission said that person had offered to transfer $65 million to Street on payment of "certain upfront fees".

Mr Wodak told Street: "I must denounce your conduct. The betrayal of trust implicit in your criminality, its predatory nature, affecting the economic wellbeing of the victims and the community generally are all features of what you did, which must be taken into account in your sentence."

AAP