INVESTORS who gave Pounds 2.3 million to a Dublin broker whose business collapsed have been told they can expect to get nothing back.
Sentencing Mark Synnott to four years and three months in jail yesterday, Judge Cyril Kelly said the 49 year old broker had carried out "a nasty and callous deceit" and had "wreaked havoc on persons of elderly age and in vulnerable situations".
Synnott, whose brokerage at Serpentine Avenue, Ballsbridge, collapsed in 1991, pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud. The State decided not to prosecute a further 36 counts.
It was the first prosecution for "fraudulent trading", which carries a maximum seven year sentence. Synnott pleaded guilty to having carried on the business "with intent to defraud the creditors" by pretending he had invested their money.
More than loo investors most of them elderly gave Synnott their savings for pensions in their retirement. Most sums ranged from Pounds 40,000 to Pounds 150,000.
A thalidomide victim had handed over his Pounds 70,000 compensation payment.
The cost of the liquidation about Pounds 250,000 including legal fees has taken up most of the funds raised by the sale of property owned by Synnott.
Yesterday, in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, a garda who investigated the company said there was "no money available at all".
However, Mr Peter Charleton SC, Synnott's barrister, said the former broker had also "suffered immensely" from the failure of the company. He was now living "in modest" circumstances in his mother's home and relied on social welfare payments. His wife and children had left him. He no longer enjoyed the respect he once had in financial circles.
Investors at the court were satisfied with the sentence. "It's better than nothing," said one. "The thing that annoys me is that there is still no protection for investors."
The court was told Synnott had used some investors' funds to pay "dividends" to others. But he had also wasted money on "high living", including buying a stud in Co Kildare.