Former adviser Harish Puri has been jailed three years for life insurance fraud, New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority says.

He was charged with two counts of obtaining by deception in March last year and was sentenced in February after pleading guilty.

The FMA’s latest financial advisers update says Puri, from Auckland, secured $NZ775,000 ($718,264) in upfront commissions by submitting 41 fraudulent policy applications to two insurer portals.

He altered genuine clients’ details to make them look like new clients, or used details from other members of the public in application forms.

The offences took place between 2021 and 2023, and the FMA and police received a complaint from the insurers in March 2023.

FMA head of financial advice Romil Ghelani says the scammer – who advised on health, life, trauma, disability and income protection insurance – “discredits the good work … across [the] financial advice sector. [His] actions were nothing short of unacceptable.

“When we see this type of behaviour, the FMA will respond swiftly and decisively to hold individuals to account and promote the integrity of the financial advice sector.”