A suburban Melbourne insurance broker has been sentenced in the Melbourne County Court to 12 months jail, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to four charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception and one charge of dishonestly using his position to gain an advantage.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission alleged that between May 2004 and June 2005, Presidential Financial Services director Duncan Howarth, of Ringwood, arranged premium funding of about $1.4 million for himself and seven clients by falsely claiming the loans were to be used to pay premiums.

The insurance policies quoted by Mr Howarth were fictitious and the funds obtained were used by him and the clients for other purposes.

The clients were not aware of the deception and all the loan money, plus interest, was repaid by him and the clients. The brokerage received $69,869 in fees and commissions for arranging the loans.