Damian Clarke, a former equities trader at Schroders Investment Management, has been sentenced to two years in prison for insider trading.
Clarke pleaded guilty to nine counts of insider trading spanning nine years, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Monday, with the profits made from the deals amounting to at least £155,162.
He pleaded guilty to seven counts of insider trading on 24 July last year. In March, Clarke pleaded guilty to the remaining two counts at Southwark crown court in central London.
As she sentenced Clarke, Judge Joanna Korner said: “It was no exaggeration when prosecution counsel said in opening that these offences were premeditated, deliberate and dishonest”.
The nine counts to which Clarke pleaded guilty included trading in homebuilder Swan Hill in 2003, while the most recent count concerned trading in Invensys, now Schneider Electric, in 2012.
The FCA said Clarke used inside information about significant corporate events, mainly mergers and acquisitions, to place share trades using accounts in his own name and those of close family members.
Mark Steward, the director of enforcement and market oversight at the City regulator, said: “This is yet another case involving a city professional caught and jailed for abusing the market that employs him. Insider dealing is increasingly detectable these days and, where detected, more likely to lead to terms of imprisonment and shame, rather than glamorous profits and fame.”
Schroders, one of the UK’s largest investment managers, did not immediately comment.
