Broker asks LBA to reconsider expulsion

Queenstown broker Garry Patterson has asked the Life Brokers Association to review its decision to expel him from membership.

Tuesday, November 23rd 2004, 6:10AM

Queenstown broker Garry Patterson has asked the Life Brokers Association to review its decision to expel him from membership.

Dave Craven, president of the LBA, says the board is considering the request but before it agrees Patterson will have to come up with evidence the LBA’s disciplinary subcommittee did not uncover during its lengthy investigation.

Patterson, meanwhile, says the LBA is on notice. And he appears to have the backing of at least one insurer who has tried to act as negotiator between Patterson and the LBA.

Milton Jennings, chief executive of Fidelity Life, says even if Patterson is expelled from the LBA his agency with Fidelity is likely to remain in place.

“Garry’s had an agency with Fidelity for seven years and we have never had a problem with him,” Jennings says.

“We would still continue our agency with him. He’s got more than $1 million of in force business with us.”

Patterson was advised his membership was revoked on October 7.

The LBA subsequently sent letters to eight insurers to advise them of its unanimous decision.

AIA’s general manager Bernard McCrea says he was not aware of anything until then. AIA is reviewing Patterson’s agency.

Sovereign’s head of distribution, David Haak, says Patterson’s agency is still alive, but the company is looking into how Patterson sold one of its medical policies to a Queensown client, how the case was managed and the process that has taken place since.

That client, Queenstown art gallery owner Julia Milley is still waiting, but remains determined to get the $7,509 she was awarded through the Disputes Tribunal in the District Court in Alexandra in May this year.

She alleges Patterson has sold her several policies, many of which covered the same things.

But at the centre the dispute is Milley’s claim that Patterson sold her a health policy for her and her daughter saying it also covered them for dental treatment.

When she subsequently made a claim, it was disallowed with Sovereign pointing out dental treatment was never covered under the policy.

Milley eventually contacted Sovereign herself and says she was distressed to learn how the matter had been handled by Patterson.

She complained to the LBA and sought recompense through the Disputes Tribunal.

The LBA also has extensive notes of the case.

Christchurch broker Graeme Lindsay, who was then on the investigating subcommittee, says Patterson was given several chances to respond to the committee.

Nor did he attend the first Disputes Tribunal hearing and a rescheduled one.

An application for a rehearing in the court was turned down earlier this month.

When the Disputes Tribunal found for Milley on May 20 this year, Lindsay says he was obliged to write to the LBA chairman and ethics committee.

Patterson says his membership of the LBA hasn’t been revoked and that it is all a misunderstanding.

Craven says the decision was made after thorough investigation and under LBA rules.

Patterson and his lawyer would now be required to present new evidence - evidence that was counter to that on which the LBA made it decision - before Patterson would be reinstated.

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