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Seymour Pierce fined over employee fraud crimes

Published on 9 Oct 2009 under category: legal

Fraud crimes worth nearly £150,000 at a stockbroker have been revealed.

A former worker for Seymour Pierce stole money across 36 transactions in 2006 while they were employed with the company.

Of these, 33 were from internal accounts and were worth £75,281 and the other three made a value of £73,884 and were from inactive client accounts.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has now fined Seymour Pierce £154,000 for not preventing these crimes and subsequently failing to detect them for three years.

Margaret Cole, director of enforcement and financial crime for the FSA, commented: "This is a serious failure on Seymour Pierce's part. The frauds were not sophisticated and could have been detected at a much earlier stage if the proper procedures had been in place."

These incidents were noticed after the perpetrator had been dismissed from the firm, when his replacement spotted accounting discrepancies.

In other news, earlier this week Ian Clement, a former deputy to Boris Johnson, was given a suspended sentence after admitting fraud.

If you require advice on Corporate Fraud please call us on +44 (0)20 7831 0101 and ask for Dan Hyde.