News Release

Released: 10/24/01 Contact: Andrew Poon
NR 01-51 604-899-6880 or
(BC & Alberta) 1-800-373-6393

Vancouver – The B.C. Securities Commission imposed a $5,000 administrative penalty on a Vancouver mutual fund salesman and barred him from the securities market for five years after finding he stole $655 from a client.
 
The commission panel also ordered the salesman, Randall Kane Garrod of PFSL Investments Canada Ltd., to pay costs associated with his hearing before the commission panel.
 
“The health of the capital markets depends on the reliance that investors place on the integrity and honesty of registrants,” the panel said in its decision.  “Conduct like Garrod’s damages the integrity of the markets themselves and cannot be condoned.”
 
During the hearing, BCSC staff said that Mackenzie Financial Corp. had sent a $655 annual mutual fund distribution cheque to one of Garrod’s clients but Canada Post returned the cheque to Mackenzie in January 1999 after finding the client had moved. Mackenzie then sent the cheque to Garrod, for forwarding to his client.
 
Instead of sending the cheque to the client, Garrod deposited it to his own bank account. He later withdrew all of the funds in that account.
 
The client pursued the missing cheque with Mackenzie, discovered it had been cashed and contacted the RCMP. Garrod was charged criminally in June 2000 and pled guilty to one count of theft under $5,000.  He was later sentenced to 30 days in jail and 90 days’ probation and was ordered to return the $655 to his client.
 
The B.C. Securities Commission is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities and exchange contracts within the province. The decision can be viewed in the documents database of the commission’s website www.bcsc.bc.ca or by contacting Andrew Poon, Media Relations, 604-899-6880.