Insider dealing pair told to pay back £1.5m

The Financial Services Authority is celebrating its largest proceeds-of-crime haul after a former banker and his wife guilty of insider trading were ordered to pay more than £1.5m to the City watchdog.

Christian Littlewood, a financier with German investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, and his wife, Angie, will have to pay £767,000 each or face another three years in prison after Southwark Crown Court approved a confiscation order.

The two, with Helmy Omar Sa'aid, pleaded guilty in 2010 to eight counts of insider dealing. "Insider dealers are motivated by greed and a belief that they can make easy money at the expense of others," said FSA head of enforcement, Tracey McDermott. "A key part of our strategy is to ensure those who are convicted of insider dealing do not keep their ill-gotten gains."