The Financial Conduct Authority has fined Martin Sarl £5,021 and banned him from working in the financial services industry for acting without honesty and integrity. He was the only director at Perry Prowse (Insurance Consultants) Ltd, and did not pass on clients’ premiums to insurers , leaving some of them uninsured.

Therese Chambers, joint head of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA said: “Mr Sarl's customers trusted him to keep their money safe and to secure the insurance cover they needed. Instead he helped himself to prop up his business and personal finances. He compounded this by lying to his customers.

“This left many people at risk of being unable to make a claim should they have needed to. It is right that Mr Sarl should be banned from the industry.”