Ex-Quindell boss mired in loan dispute

The f ormer boss of Quindell received almost £100,000 when the company ‘inadvertently’ loaned him the money interest free for nine months, it has emerged.

Rob Terry, who could be questioned as part of a Serious Fraud Office investigation into the company’s accounts at the time he ran the business, was fired last year after being accused of selling shares while sitting on price- sensitive information.

he was paid £1.5m in redundancy costs, according to Quindell’s accounts filed last week.

But the documents, which were released a month l ater than planned, have revealed more unconventional financial arrangements that benefited Terry.

In February 2013 Quindell bought a consulting firm Compass Costs, paying just under £7m in Quindell’s shares. In April 2014 the previous owner of Compass sold some of those shares back to a number of Quindell directors, including Terry. For reasons that are not clear, Quindell paid for the shares, but ‘did not immediately collect a corresponding payment for the directors’. This meant that ‘loans to the directors were inadvertently created’, it admitted on page 107 of the report.

Almost £170,000 was loaned to six directors at the time – including £95,000 to Terry himself. Although four of the bosses paid back their sums in July, Terry waited until December to pay back the money.

Last year three directors including Terry told the stock market they had increased their stake in the company. But after regulators intervened, the trio were forced to admit they had sold shares to fund the deal. The revelation, which came months after the company had been stung by questions over its accounting policies, sent shares into a tailspin and led to Terry and the other directors being ousted.

Both Quindell (down 5p at 88.5p) and its auditor KPMG are being investigated by the SFO.