A former financial adviser has launched a searing attack on the "unscrupulous" finance industry for allegedly mugging millions of UK investors for years.
Author Peter Robertson, based at Much Wenlock in Shropshire, claims that 'many financial advisers' have for years deliberately mis-sold investments to boost their "exorbitant" commission income which have seen some salesmen earning more than £250,000 a year.
In his new book, Complain and Claim, he accuses the industry of adopting irresponsible targets and remuneration schemes which encourage staff to mis-sell with profit driven advice being given rather than the consumer's best interests at heart.
And he believes that the the industry's regulator, the Financial Services Authority, runs a very inefficient system to track mis-selling with its costs indirectly transferred to the consumer.
"I want to bring an end to decades of bad practice that have made a lot of salesmen rich at the expense of millions of decent, ordinary, hard working people," said Mr Robertson, who has dubbed himself the 'whistleblower'.
"For far too long the financial services industry has been allowed to abuse the trust of consumers because successive governments and the regulator have failed to take one tough decision - to address the problem of excessive commission, the root cause of nearly all mis-selling scandals.
"It is not possible for consumers to move forward with any confidence and make new commitments to save or invest until the wrongs of the past are corrected."
After a 15-year career, Mr Robertson was motivated to write a book "blowing the lid" on the mis-selling tactics of many in the industry so that consumers had ammunition to fight back.
He has declared today as C Day - Complain and Claim Day - when he launches his book and advises consumers on how to get compensation.
Mr Robertson calculates there are at least five million victims who have been wrongly advised to transfer pensions, start inappropriate protection plans and unnecessarily switch products to generate commission for the adviser and which leave consumers worse off.
Lampooning many financial advisers as "snakes who take on eel like" characteristics, he claims that embedded attitudes in the industry consider treating customers fairly as an optional extra.
"It is not unusual to find people who have been advised to contract out of state second pension, transfer their smaller pensions to one larger pension plan, and take out high charging protection and saving policies.
"And let's not forget the plans they took out 15 years ago that lapsed without value while being lumbered with a second rate mortgage deal," he added.
