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A FINANCIAL adviser with a history of involvement in failed firms and dodgy deals has finally been banned from acting as a company director.

Kevin Gerald Neal, of Hitchin, Hertfordshire, ran Kevin Neal Associates Wealth Management. Under a deal with the Financial Conduct Authority, the firm took responsibility in 2011 for the debts of Neal’s previous advice firm which was put into liquidation by the High Court.

By 2014, the wealth management firm owed clients at least £573,000 after complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service were upheld. The regulator ordered Neal not to strip the business of assets without its consent, but Neal and his wife Cheryl – also a director – took cash and cars worth more than £77,000. The business failed with debts of £9.4 million.

Action by the Insolvency Service means Kevin Neal, 60, cannot run a new firm for six years while Cheryl Neal is banned for four years.

Neal hit the headlines a year ago when he was sued by a client of his, Alan Shearer, for £9 million. In court documents the football star described Neal as ‘dishonest’ in the advice he gave. The claim was settled out of court.

It is unclear why Neal was still authorised as an adviser. An earlier firm of his – Kevin Neal Associates – acted as an agent for a fraudulent Florida investment scheme that I warned against in 2004 and 2008.

Mutual Benefits Corporation sold second-hand life insurance policies. Investors would get the full policy value when the policyholder died, but almost all survived.

The regulator’s forerunner – the Financial Services Authority – knew Kevin Neal was marketing MBC but let him stay in business. Last week the regulator provided no comment.