FORMER deputy Tony Webber wants a public fighting fund set up to save his financial services company. He has lost in his latest attempt to have his case heard by the Royal Court after Jonathan Sumption, QC, said there was little or no chance of his case being successful.
A tribunal hearing in January 2007 had previously backed a Guernsey Financial Services Commission’s decision of May 2006 to revoke the licence of Canivet Webber Financial Services to act as an insurance intermediary.
A request for leave to appeal to the Privy Council was also turned down by Mr Sumption at the latest Court of Appeal hearing yesterday. ‘I’ve got to publicly appeal for the funds so that this can be fairly heard,’ said Mr Webber (pictured) after the hearing.
‘The commission does not want this appeal to be heard. Anyone interested in human rights and the commission acting fairly will understand my situation because there is a danger of it not going ahead because of my financial situation.’
The latest hearing saw Mr Webber unsuccessful in attempting to show that he should be exempt from having to provide assurances of security of costs for £12,000 ahead of a Royal Court appearance.
Mr Sumption said that although it would ‘stifle’ the case by ordering Mr Webber to offer security, there was no real prospect of him proving that the GFSC had been unreasonable in revoking licences and that it would be wrong for the commission to have to spend substantial sums fighting off a claim that had little or no chance of success.
Mr Webber said it was still his intention to appeal to the Privy Council, as well as possibly the European Court of Human Rights.
‘The commission and tribunal have totally missed the point because it was totally impossible to meet the requirements of the commission while there were licence restrictions on the company.
‘The tribunal did not hear all the facts and in law I have the right to take the matter to the Royal Court.
‘Tribunals do not always get things right.’
The tribunal in January 2007, which was headed by Michael Blair QC, said the commission had got its decision to revoke Canivet Webber’s licence absolutely correct after issues of the company failing to comply with regulatory requirements had dragged on since 2002.
It said that any attempt to ‘resuscitate’ the vehicle was not in the best interests of the Bailiwick and that the risk to the public in doing so was too great.
Mr Webber, who was also ordered to pay the costs of the latest hearing, said he was worried he was being targeted by the commission on a personal and political level.
‘A lot of people have said to me, “why are the commission trying to put you out of business when you have not done anything fundamentally wrong?”
‘The commission have a variety of powers and measures open to them and what they have chosen to do with Canivet Webber is what you do with people doing money laundering or using drug money.
‘This case just illustrates there are gaps in the financial services regulations.’
Article posted on 16th July, 2008 - 2.29pm
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