The sentencing comes after the former advisor pleaded guilty to 33 counts of fraud and 21 counts of fraudulent falsification of records.

Thanh Tu, a former Brisbane-based financial advisor has been sentenced to nine and a half years' imprisonment after pleading guilty to fraud charges.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission found that, between September 2008 and September 2013, Tu misled 18 individuals into investing around $9 million while he was working at Patersons Securities. He gave some investors a false Certificate of Investment in the fictitious Paterson Securities – API Protected Fund and the fictitious Patersons Securities Capital Protected Fund.

Tu then fraudulently redirected the funds to a personal trading account before trading the money in risky investments and losing $8.1 million of the original capital invested. A total of $959,000 was recovered, the regulator said.

“The actions of Mr Tu were deceitful and calculated and undermine confidence in the financial advice industry. His lengthy jail sentence should send a strong message that such conduct will not be tolerated by ASIC or the community,” said ASIC commissioner Greg Tanzer in a statement.

After Patersons terminated Tu’s employment in September 2013, he worked at Cognitive Wealth as an executive investment advisor until the company became aware of the ASIC investigation in late 2013.