Rogue trader must pay back £350,000

A FORMER trader jailed for insider dealing has been ordered to pay back around half the cash he made during his nine-year crime spree.

Former Schroders trader Damian Clarke used advance information on mergers and acquisitions to make a killing on the stock market – using family members’ names to cover his tracks. Yesterday the 41-year-old was ordered to pay £350,000 to the Financial Conduct Authority after Southwark Crown Court decided he had made £719,658.69 from crime between 2003 and 2012.

Clarke, of Lincolnshire, pleaded guilty in June last year to nine counts of insider dealing on firms including housebuilder Swan Hill Group and plumbing and heating firm BSS Group. He was jailed for two years. He has three months to pay up or he could be jailed for another three years.

FCA enforcement director Mark Steward said Clarke ‘has lost his liberty, his livelihood and his reputation and must now pay a substantial confiscation order’.