Financial planner Hilton Woolf knew something was wrong.
“I realised that something’s wrong, but I couldn’t pinpoint it,” Woolf said.
It wasn’t until he requested his client’s original documentation from a major financial institution, MLC, that Woolf discovered her con. Caddick had used Tipp-ex, or correction fluid, to doctor the form to give herself double the amount she was entitled to.
The client had agreed to pay her a $3432 upfront “fee for service” instead of a commission. On the form, where she was asked: “Would you like to allocate a portion of your initial (upfront) remuneration as additional units to your client?” Caddick ticked “yes” and circled 100 per cent. This meant she was giving up any entitlement to take a commission.
However, when Woolf looked at what she had submitted to MLC, to his astonishment, he saw that she had “Tipp-exed” this out to give herself a hefty commission, which MLC paid her. Woolf said that MLC was not aware that she had already been fully paid for her services.
This meant that the client had not invested $104,000, as Caddick had stolen a chunk of his investment.
“Rip off. That’s the word to use,” Woolf told the podcast. However, when he confronted Caddick she said, “Oh, golly me, my secretary messed up here.” Her boss also believed it was a genuine mistake.
But Woolf is certain that this was no one-off error.
“I know, as the sun’s gonna rise in the east tomorrow, this could not have been the only…
