Bank fraudster and wife to repay £1.5m

Christian Littlewood and his wife Angie were each ordered to repay the £767,000 they gained from the scam, following a confiscation order bought by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

Mr Littlewood, 37, a former senior investment banker, was jailed for three years and four months in 2011 for tipping his wife to invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in companies when he learned their share price could increase.

Mrs Littlewood, 39, who traded under her Chinese name Siew Yoon Lew, was spared jail with 12-months’ imprisonment suspended for two years.

The order will be paid out of funds and assets which were restrained by the court on the application of the FSA when the Littlewoods were arrested.

Beside the couple, family friend Helmy Omar Sa’aid, 34, also admitted his part in the illegal trading between 2000 and 2008 in a number of different London Stock Exchange and AIM-listed shares. He was jailed for two years and ordered to pay £640,000 in confiscation at a hearing last year.

Tracey McDermott, director of enforcement and financial crime at FSA, said: “As a result of their actions the Littlewoods have not only received custodial sentences and seen their reputations and future careers destroyed they have also paid a sum in confiscation significantly greater than the profit from the indicted trading alone.

“The orders made today, coupled with the sentences previously imposed, should make it clear that insider dealing does not pay.”

If the sums are not paid within six months, the Littlewoods could spend three extra years in jail