ASIC-banned employee charged with unlicenced credit

A Cairns pawnbroker and banned employee has been taken to court in relation to unlicenced credit.

Colin Hulbert, a former director of Cash Lenders, has been charged with engaging in credit activity without a licence as well as with engaging in conduct that contravened an order banning him from engaging in any credit activities.  

ASIC alleged that from July 2015 to May 2020, Hulbert and Cash Lenders issued pawn tickets which were actually credit contracts as they included a term allowing the pawnbroking business to take debt recovery action against customers for any unpaid debts.   

Both Hulbert and Cash Lenders have also been charged in relation to altering books which were supplied to ASIC during its investigation.

In 2017, Hulbert ceased being a director of Cash Lenders and became its employee, after he transferred the business ownership to his wife.

In 2018, he was permanently banned by ASIC from engaging in credit activity after he was found to have been knowingly involved in 73 contraventions of credit legislation between 2008 and 2012.

Hulbert was able to continue working as a pawnbroker after the ASIC ban as this fell outside the scope of national credit legislation.

ASIC said the matters were heard in the Cairns Magistrates Court on April 18 and are adjourned to June 13.  

The matter is being prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions following an ASIC investigation.