{"id":47390,"date":"2019-12-02T16:12:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T05:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=47390"},"modified":"2019-12-03T20:20:42","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T09:20:42","slug":"comminsure-sentenced-for-hawking-offences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2019\/12\/02\/comminsure-sentenced-for-hawking-offences\/","title":{"rendered":"CommInsure Sentenced for Hawking Offences"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">CommInsure has been sentenced following its conviction on 87 counts of offering to sell insurance products in the course of unlawful, unsolicited telephone calls, contrary to s992A(3) of the Corporations Act, ASIC stated in a release.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As a result of this conduct, known as \u201chawking\u201d, CommInsure was fined $700,000.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The conviction and fine follow CommInsure\u2019s guilty plea to the charges on 19 November 2019 (see: <a href=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2019\/11\/19\/comminsure-pleads-guilty-to-hawking-offences\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CommInsure Pleads Guilty to Hawking Offences\u2026<\/a>). <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">ASIC stated that the sentence takes into account CommInsure\u2019s early guilty plea to the charges, which carried a maximum total penalty of $1,848,750. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">However, the maximum penalty would be $10,962,000 if the conduct were to occur under the new penalty regime, effective from March 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In delivering the sentence, Her Honour <strong>Magistrate Atkinson<\/strong> said there is a \u201csignificant need for deterrence\u201d, and that those who market and sell insurance products \u201cmust ensure that they comply with what is important consumer protection legislation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">ASIC Deputy Chair <strong>Daniel Crennan<\/strong> QC said, \u201cThe conviction and sentence today sends a significant message to the financial services industry. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThe model operated by CommInsure carried risks for consumers due to the unsolicited sale of complex insurance products which consumers may not have needed, wanted or understood,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CommInsure has been sentenced following its conviction on 87 counts of offering to sell insurance products in the course of unlawful, unsolicited telephone calls, contrary to s992A(3) of the Corporations Act, ASIC stated in a release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-47390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-compliance-regulation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}