Margaret Cole
This is another milestone in our fight against market abuse.
Date 26/11/2010
FSA/PN/168/2010
26 November 2010
In a case brought by the Financial Service Authority (FSA) Neil Rollins, a former senior manager of PM Onboard Limited, a waste industry firm, was today found guilty of five counts of insider dealing and four counts of money laundering at Southwark Crown Court after he traded on the basis of information he obtained as a result of his senior position and laundered the proceeds.
Based on his knowledge of the company’s worsening financial position he sold his entire shareholding in PM Group plc and encouraged his wife to do the same. When Rollins became aware of the FSA’s interest in his dealing he laundered the proceeds to try to hide his conduct.
The case is the fifth successful prosecution brought by the FSA as part of its ongoing drive to promote efficient, orderly and fair markets and to tackle market abuse.
Margaret Cole, managing director of enforcement and financial crime at the FSA, said:
“This is another milestone in our fight against market abuse. Insider dealing is not a victimless crime and we remain committed to stamping out this type of fraud by those trusted with inside information. Insider dealing damages the very confidence that underpins the integrity of our markets. Rollins’ crime was aggravated by the fact that he sought to hide his conduct from the FSA by laundering the proceeds.”
The sentencing and confiscation hearing will take place on 21 January 2011.
In August and September 2006, Rollins sold his entire shareholding in PM Group plc raising substantial proceeds (£173,500). When information about the company’s worsening financial position was announced to the market the share price fell immediately by 17 % so that by selling his shares when he did he avoided substantial losses (approximately £45,000) , he also encouraged his wife, Louisa Rollins, to do the same with her entire shareholding . Rollins subsequently laundered the money by transferring the proceeds of his crime into accounts that he had set up in the name of his father, David Rollins.
1. Rollins’s loss avoided was approximately £45,000 as calculated at the end of the first day after PM Group plc made an announcement informing the market of its worsening financial position. The loss avoided increased to £68,000 by the second day after the announcement.
2. Louisa Rollins’s, share sale proceeds were approximately £17,000. On the same basis as note 1 above, the loss avoided was approximately £3,000 increasing to £7,000 by the second day after the announcement,
3. The FSA has so far secured a number of sentences of imprisonment (two suspended) in relation to insider dealing: Christopher McQuoid and James William Melbourne in March 2009; Matthew and Neel Uberoi in November 2009, Malcolm Calvert on 11 March 2010 and Anjam Ahmad on 22 June 2010. Details of each case are available on the FSA website.
4. The FSA is currently prosecuting 15 other individuals for insider dealing:
Name | Trial date |
Christian Littlewood | Trial commencing 10 January 2011 |