MR Peter Clowes, jailed for 10 years in Britain in 1992 for fraud, was freed on parole yesterday following a review of his case by the Parole Board and the Home Secretary, Mr Michael Howard.
The decision was announced in the High Court as Mr Clowes dropped a move to have the Home Secretary and the chairman of the Parole Board committed to prison for failing to keep to their pledge to reconsider his parole plea and rule on it by February 20th.
Mr Graeme Williams QC, for Mr Clowes (52), told Mr Justice Jowitt "At lunchtime today, outside this court, I was told that the Home Secretary had decided to accept a recommendation of the Parole Board to release my client on licence."
Mr Clowes, who was already on resettlement leave from Sudbury Prison, Derbyshire, said as he left court "The main thing is that I have served my sentence, hopefully with dignity.
"I want to sincerely thank my solicitor, my family and all those who have supported me through this most difficult period. I now look forward to getting back to my family and putting right that which can be put right."
Former investors with the crashed Barlow Clowes investment company last night said Mr Clowes should have served the full 10 year jail term.
Serving just four years is no comeuppance for what he did said Mrs Karen Reynolds. "He should have done the full 10 years. The judicial system is not fair you can get 10 years for murder.
"It is very unfair. I want him to come out penniless and facing a struggle, but I'm sure that won't be the case. I hope he will not be allowed to deal in anything financial again. But with the state of affairs in this country, he will probably land on his feet."
She and her husband Stuart, of Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, Cheshire, invested £45,000 awarded in a medical negligence case in Barlow Clowes. "We were in our 30s at the time and so were in a different position from other investors, most of who in were elderly and investing their life savings."
She said her 14 year old son Jason remembered all the trouble the crash caused.
"But now it all seems in the dim and distant past. I would feel more bitter if we had been, older and lost all our savings. As it was, we were wrongly advised about where to put our money.
Mrs Reynolds said that when the news broke in 1988 she confronted Mr Clowes on his door step at Prestbury, Cheshire "I gave him a piece of my mind."
