04-068 Former Cairns dealer jailed
Monday 15 March 2004
Ms Amber Joy Phelps, of Cairns, Queensland, pleaded guilty in the Cairns District Court to six counts of dishonestly applying $80,400 belonging to clients of ABN AMRO Morgans (AAM).
The charges were brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), following an investigation into her conduct when she was employed as a junior dealer in the Cairns office of AAM.
Ms Phelps was sentenced to three years jail to be suspended after serving six months for an operational period of five years on each of the six dishonesty convictions..
Ms Phelps also pleaded guilty to one count of dishonestly misusing her position as an employee of Boxberg Holdings Pty Ltd, with the intention of gaining an advantage for herself. She was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment on this charge, to be released after serving six months by giving a surety in the recognizance of $500 to be of good behaviour for five years. All sentences are to be served concurrently.
Boxberg Holdings Pty Ltd, who employed Ms Phelps between October 2001 and September 2002, manages the Cairns office of AAM. When employed by Boxberg, Ms Phelps' duties included effecting buy and sell orders on behalf of clients and following up settlements.
Commonwealth Prosecutor, Frank Walsh, advised the Court that, whilst an employee of Boxberg Holdings, Ms Phelps commenced trading in warrants in February 2002. The Prosecutor said her initial trading was successful and resulted in small profits however by June 2002 she suffered losses in her trading activities.
Ms Phelps then misappropriated funds from client accounts to clear the debt in her trading account and also to clear a small debt in her mother's trading account which Ms Phelps had incurred by trading in warrants.
The Prosecutor said to repay clients' misappropriated money, Ms Phelps created a fictitious trading account to trade out of trouble. Her trading on the fictitious account resulted in further losses and Ms Phelps misappropriated additional funds to repay losses on that account and her own account. In September 2002, the directors of Boxberg Holdings discovered the unauthorised transactions and referred the matter to the Police and ASIC.
In October 2003, ASIC banned Ms Phelps, indefinitely, from acting as a representative of a dealer or a representative of an investment advisor.
ASIC Website: Printed 07/05/2009
