FAIS debarment: an honest person with integrity

Donald Dinnie, Norton Rose Fulbright

In the April 2023 Tribunal decision discussed here (The FAIS Act and debarment: fit and proper) and here (The jurisdictional requirements for FAIS debarment) the Tribunal considered a requirement that a fit and proper person must be an honest person with integrity.

With regard to the element of dishonesty the Tribunal referred to the decision in Jones v Gordon 1877 2 App CAS 616 HL:

“He was not honestly blundering and careless, but he must have had a suspicion that there was something wrong and that he refrained from asking questions, not because he was an honest blunderer or a stupid man, but because he thought in his own secret mind – ‘I suspect there is something wrong and If I ask questions and make further enquiry, it will no longer be my suspecting it, but my knowing it and then I shall not be able to recover’ – I think that is dishonesty.”

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