Lloyd's broker banned

The Lloyd's of London insurance market has permanently banned a broker from trading on the market for "calculated dishonesty." Lloyd's said David Martin had also been fined pounds 20,000 and ordered to pay pounds 5,000 in costs. He is the third Lloyd's member this year to suffer a permanent ban.

Lloyd's said the offences occurred when Mr Martin was employed as a senior executive director of Special Risk Services (SRS), a division of the UK broker Minet Group. It said Mr Martin commissioned a report from a private investigator on a director of a company which wanted to do business with SRS. The report showed that the director had had criminal convictions, which included a three-year prison sentence for fraud and had "scant regard for normal business practices".