Case Reports

Date of Judgment: 11 September 2020
Court: District Court of NSW (M King DCJ)
Partner Agency: Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)

In a landmark case, the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Ltd, trading as CommInsure, was fined $700,000 on 28 November 2019 after earlier pleading guilty to 87 counts of offering to sell insurance products in the course of unlawful, unsolicited telemarketing calls. This conduct is known as “hawking”.

On 10 July 2019, a financial advisor who stole $4.8 million from his clients was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of seven years. James Gibbs (51) was sentenced in the District Court in Adelaide, after stealing the money from 30 victims who were retired or preparing for retirement between 2009 and 2016.

On 2 August 2019, Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd (K-Line) was convicted of criminal cartel conduct and fined $34.5 million: the largest ever criminal fine imposed under the Competition and Consumer Act.

On 15 March 2019, former financial planner Gabriel Nakhl was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of six years, after he took approximately $5.1 million of his clients’ investment funds and used it for his own purposes. Reparation orders totalling $4.6 million were made in favour of the victims.

On 1 June 2018, the former Chief Executive Officer of abalone farm Australian Bight Abalone Ltd (ABA) Andrew Ferguson, was sentenced to 3 years, 6 months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 1 year for providing false or misleading information to the company’s board and potential investors.