ASIC bans insurance director

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has permanently banned the director of an insurance company.

In a media release, the regulator announced that Sean John Sweeney, the former director of Sweeney Insurance Services, was convicted of fraud offences on 4 November 2022 in the Local Court of NSW in Hornsby.

“Mr Sweeney is banned from providing any financial services, performing any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business, and controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business,” said the release.

Sweeney, from Lindfield in NSW, was authorised to provide advice between November 2014 and July 2020. The ASIC release said, during this period, Sweeney was the sole director of Sweeney Insurance Services and then a firm called Swinsure.

“Financial advisers must act with honesty and integrity in their dealings with clients,” said ASIC in the release.

In December last year, Sweeney filed an application at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) seeking a review of the regulator’s decision. That decision is currently pending.