Judge lifts reporting ban on Levitt case rebuke

THE JUDGE criticised for the light sentence he gave to Roger Levitt, the life insurance salesman who admitted fraud, yesterday lifted a reporting ban on the severe rebuke he had given Levitt's defence counsel, writes Paul Durman.

Levitt was sentenced to 180 hours' community service last week after he admitted lying to City authorities. This was only a small part of a much larger case, in which Levitt was accused of theft and fraud involving millions of pounds. Levitt denied these charges.

The lifting of the reporting ban sheds light on the Serious Fraud Office's willingness to accept a guilty plea to a lesser charge, after the opening statement by Jonathan Goldberg QC, Levitt's counsel.

Mr Justice Laws, the trial judge, yesterday granted an application from the SFO to allow reports of Mr Goldberg's statement and the criticism that followed it.

Mr Goldberg told the jury that Levitt had injected pounds 22m of his own money, 'honestly come by', into his ailing firm. The judge severely criticised Mr Goldberg in the absence of the jury for 'subverting' an earlier ruling to deal neutrally with the cash injection.

Sir Nicholas Lyell, the Attorney- General, said last night that he had investigated the conduct of the case against Levitt and was satisfied that 'the prosecution by the Serious Fraud Office was fairly, properly and vigorously conducted'.