Jailed FD to pay £141,000 in compensation
Former FD of software group AIT ordered to pay compensation after successful FSA prosecution
The former finance director of listed software group AIT – who was jailed
last month for misleading shareholders – has been ordered to pay £141,686 in
compensation.
Gareth Bailey, 36, is serving two years for his part in a ruse whereby he and
the company’s former chairman, Carl Rigby, booked bogus deals as genuine sales
so that they could falsely claim to have met sales and profit targets.
The two men’s scheme helped disguise difficulties at AIT, but when it
collapsed in June 2002, £90m was wiped from the value of the £100m company.
Bailey has been told to pay the compensation out of his own pocket, and if he
fails to do so, faces a further nine months in jail.
His co-conspirator, Rigby, is serving a three-and-a-half year jail term, and
has been ordered to pay a total of £840,069 compensation to duped shareholders,
the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority.
The case is the first successful criminal prosecution for market abuse by the
FSA, which spent some £1.96m on investigation and litigation costs.