SYDNEY - [AAP] A former Commonwealth Bank (ASX: CBA) financial planner has pleaded guilty to forging the signatures of clients on applications and other documents.

Ricky David Gillespie, a former senior financial planner of the Commonwealth Bank's Commonwealth Financial Planning (CFPL) business, admitted to one rolled-up charge of forging client signatures 33 times between 2007 and 2009 while working out of the Broadbeach branch on Queensland's Gold Coast.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission permanently banned Mr Gillespie in 2012 after it found he engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in violation of financial services law.

ASIC alleged that between January 2007 and June 2009, Mr Gillespie, allegedly forged client signatures on applications for financial products and company documents in an attempt to beat the bank's internal audit process.

A subsequent investigation found that between 2008 and 2009, Mr Gillespie engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct from forgery to over-charging for inappropriate advice.

ASIC deputy chair Peter Kell said Mr Gillespie's wrongdoing was not an isolated incident but rather a series of conscious and deliberate acts designed to disguise and conceal.

Mr Gillespie, of Southport, pleaded guilty in the Southport Magistrates Court on October 24 and will be sentenced on December 12 in Brisbane.

The watchdog said it continues to monitor CFPL after placing tighter conditions on the CBA subsidiary's Australian Financial Services licence in 2014 when the watchdog began clamping down on industry standards in the wake of repeated financial services scandals.

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