FCA bans former Vector Wealth chief executive who fronted for a disqualified director

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned Jeffrey Dawkins, the former chief executive of Vector Wealth Ltd, and fined him nearly £270,000, it announced on 21 October 2026. The regulator says he dishonestly acted as a front for a disqualified director who used the firm to sell high-risk bonds.

What the FCA found

According to the FCA, Mr Dawkins sold Vector Wealth in 2019 to a disqualified director who called himself the chief executive and wanted to use the firm’s FCA authorisation to sell mini-bonds. Mr Dawkins told the FCA he was still in charge, but the new owner was in fact running the firm. The disqualified director had been banned from acting as a company director for 12 years in August 2014.

The FCA says this let the bonds be promoted with the firm’s authorised status, making them look safer than they were, and that investors were not properly warned about the risks. Investors put in £105,000 on average, one of them £1.1 million, and are expected to lose about £4 million.

Mr Dawkins’s penalty includes a multiplier for the seriousness of the conduct and an uplift for not co-operating with the investigation. He has also been ordered to pay back £57,298 plus interest from the proceeds of selling the firm and staying on as its director.

Kadir Kanizi, a former senior manager, has been banned from senior management roles. His fine was calculated at £80,096 and reduced to £20,000 on grounds of serious financial hardship; the FCA agreed not to enforce it if he makes the same amount available to Vector Wealth’s liquidators.

What it means for investors

The case shows that a firm’s FCA authorisation does not by itself tell investors who is running the firm or how risky its products are. The FCA has banned the marketing of speculative illiquid securities such as mini-bonds to retail investors since 1 January 2021. “Mini-bonds and similar investments are very high risk, and people should be extremely cautious,” said Therese Chambers, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight. Our guide on how to check a broker’s licence covers the FCA register.

What happens next

Vector Wealth’s authorisation ended on 28 January 2025. The FCA says investors who bought bonds through the firm should contact its liquidator and check the FCA website for updates.