Insider dealer pair told to pay a record £1.5m to City watchdog

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 corporate 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 family friend Helmy Omar Sa'aid, pleaded guilty in October 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 that those who are convicted of insider dealing do not keep their ill-gotten gains."

Ms McDermott, who this month was appointed as the FSA's new chief policewoman, added that the sum was "significantly greater than the profit from the indicted trading alone". The trio were convicted of making £590,000 profits from insider dealing between 2000 and 2008, but the FSA said the confiscation regime allows the court to assume other trading profits during the same period were the proceeds of crime.

Mr Littlewood was jailed last year for 40 months, while Mrs Littlewood was given a 12-month suspended sentence and Mr Sa'aid was jailed for two years. He has already been ordered to pay £640,000.