Financial authority bans £14.5m fraudster Freddy David from working in industry

The Financial Conduct Authority has issued a ‘final notice’ prohibition order on convicted fraudster Freddy David, the former director of HBFS Financial Services.

In July 2018, David was sentenced to ten years in prison for “dishonestly obtaining transfers” of £14.5 million from 55 mostly-elderly clients between 2005 and 2017, when authorities began investigating.

He told the clients that they were buying high-interest financial products at the Bank of Scotland and Barclays Bank, but in fact these products did not exist.

Instead, he blew their savings on gambling, despite many relying on it to pay for care in later life. He made periodic payments “to lull them into believing there was an investment and it was performing well”.

The FCA has now banned David, an inmate at HMP The Mount, from ever again working in financial services, ruling that he is “not a fit and proper person as he was dishonest” and “showed a clear and serious lack of honesty and integrity”.

In taking its decision, the FCA said it had taken into account “the severity of the risk posed by Mr David to consumers and to financial institutions”. He has also been banned from being a company director for ten years – the duration of his sentence.