A FORMER Dresdner Kleinwort banker and his wife must pay £1.6 million (€2 million) to Britain’s finance regulator after they were found guilty of insider trading.

Christian Littlewood, who is serving a 40-month jail sentence after he pleaded guilty last year to eight counts of insider trading, and his wife, Angie, agreed with the Financial Services Authority to forfeit the amount by which they profited. They owe £800,000 each, including proceeds from the crimes and legal costs, according to the settlement announced in a London criminal court yesterday.

Mr Littlewood admitted to passing information on confidential deals to his wife, who relayed it to an accomplice, Helmy Omar Sa’aid, who traded securities using the information.

Angie Littlewood and Sa’aid invested about £5.5 million over 10 years, the authority said. The authority “took the view that the total benefit” by the three defendants in the case is £2.3 million, which they planned to split three ways, Nicholas Dean, a lawyer for the regulator, told Judge Anthony Leonard. “Each of them, Christian and Angie Littlewood, have assets that significantly exceed that figure,” Mr Dean pointed out.

The couple have six months in which to pay the authority or face three years in prison, Judge Leonard ruled. Mr Dean said they had started selling property and should not have a problem meeting the deadline.

Angie Littlewood received a suspended 12-month sentence and is not serving a jail term. Sa’aid was jailed for two years. – (Bloomberg)