“Hindsight's a wonderful thing"

Thursday 06 September 2018

An ex-financier charged with a £2.7million fraud described hindsight as a "wonderful thing" as he admitted that he would have treated his clients, which included elderly and vulnerable people, differently if he were doing so today.

In his second day on the Royal Court witness stand, 50-year-old former Lumiere Wealth Director Christopher Paul Byrne insisted under questioning hat he always had his clients' best interests "at heart."

But he nonetheless admitted that he wouldn't give the same advice to the group accusing him of fraudulently losing their money, which includes an elderly French couple, a pensioner and a retired teacher.

In total, Mr Byrne faces 17 counts together alleging that he deceived his clients into investing in a fund called Providence by concealing information as to the risks involved as well as his own links and vested interest in the fund.

Three weeks into the trial, Mr Byrne finally took to the witness stand on Tuesday to answer the allegations against him.

Pictured: Crown Advocate Simon Thomas is making the Prosecution's case against Christoper Byrne, accused of mis-selling investments.

During stringent cross-examination from Advocate Simon Thomas, prosecuting, Mr Byrne confessed that he had described the fund as 'medium-risk' to clients, when it hadn't been described that way in an official document laying out its details.

However, Mr Byrne strenuously denied that this was “deliberately misleading”. 

He said that the 'medium-risk' label had been based on an assessment by himself and his colleagues at Lumiere, and that informing his clients that the fund had originally been described in more risky terms had “never crossed [his] mind.”

Pictured: Christopher Byrne is the former Managing Director of Lumiere Wealth and is now facing 17 counts which allege he mis-sold investments.

Even now, Mr Byrne maintained his belief that Providence was a medium risk fund.

"It [collapsed] purely because Providence weren’t putting enough money into Brazil… It didn’t collapse because of someone not being a sophisticated investor or any of the other risks," he told Court.

The Royal Court Commissioner, Sir John Saunders, presiding, intervened in the cross-examination, asking whether Mr Byrne thought that, although he believed Providence to be a medium-risk fund, that the client ought to know that it had been described in official documents as high-risk. Mr Byrne replied: “With the benefit of hindsight, what you just said is exactly what I should have done.”

Pictured: Royal Court Commissioner Sir John Saunders is presiding over Mr Byrne's trial at the Royal Court.

However, Mr Byrne maintained that he acted in his clients’ best interest. He said: “I genuinely wanted to do the best for every client. I genuinely cared about the clients… I really, really liked [them]. I had their best interests at heart."

Mr Byrne also said that, at the time, he thought he was acting only as an "introducer" to the fund rather than acting in the capacity of an official "advisor".

But he said he now accepts that he did give advice on the Providence fund, even though he didn't have regulatory permission to do so. He said: "I naively thought I was acting as an introducer... Looking back on it, I clearly did give advice, and I accept that."