Australia’s financial regulator said the former advisor had engaged in “misleading and deceptive” conduct.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has banned financial advisor Michael Mahoney from providing financial services for four years.

Mahoney was employed by the BT Financial Group within the Westpac Scaled Advice Insurance business from October 2013 to July 2014 to provide advice to retail clients on insurance products. ASIC found that during the period, Mahoney, based in Adelaide entered false information regarding various clients' health or health-risk factors in telephone applications for insurance policies. This resulted in Westpac Life Insurance Services issuing policies to clients based on false information and assuming greater risks without having an opportunity to assess those risks.

WLIS has agreed to honour the affected client policies, the regulator said.

“This outcome shows that ASIC expects employees who are providing financial services to maintain high standards and not engage in conduct that is misleading and deceptive,” said ASIC’s deputy chairman, Peter Kell.

The ban, which comes as part of ASIC's Wealth Management Project, continues a long string of bans of advisors from the financial services industry. Most recently, the regulator banned advisor Sandeep Madhoji from providing financial services or engaging in credit activity following his sentencing to 7.5 years in prison on 55 charges of fraud.