A former British Columbia insurance advisor has been fined $10,000 and ordered to pay $1,000 in investigative costs after he was paid $650,000 in commissions for fictitious applications for life insurance.

The Insurance Council of British Columbia (ICBC) says Paul Brian Bradbeer voluntarily turned in his licence in December 2016 after he made out the fictitious applications for which he accepted the commissions and then used part of the commissions to pay the monthly premium applicable to the applications.

Once the insurance company discovered the false applications, it ended its advisor agreement with Bradbeer. The two then came to a settlement agreement.

Bradbeer acknowledged to the ICBC that the names on the applications were not real and turned in his life agent licence, saying he didn’t intend to return to the insurance industry.

Based on these admissions, the ICBC concluded that Bradbeer’s actions “made him unsuitable to hold an insurance licence and if the Former Licensee make[s] an application for an insurance licence in the future, the application will be declined, based on suitability.”

In handing down the fine, the ICBC concluded that its maximum limit didn’t come close to the amount of commissions fraudulently collected “but concluded that a fine equal to the maximum amount permitted under the Act is appropriate.”