MGA director stole £45,000 as firm went under

Shakespeare Underwriting director Andrew Booth stole £45,000 from his company as it went into administration in 2006, a court heard.

Booth and fellow Shakespeare director Jayson Hollier have both been convicted of fraudulent trading and perjury at Warwick Crown Court.

Insurance companies, the MGA’s principal creditors, suffered an estimated loss of around £2m, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), the prosecutor in the case, said in a statement.

Shakespeare, a Warwickshire-based underwriting agency, had business relationships with insurers AIG Europe, Plum, Landmark and New Hampshire.

The court heard that Booth removed “large amounts of money” from the company, some of which went to Hollier, BIS said.

The court also heard how the two men had tried to disguise Hollier’s ownership and control of Shakespeare and another agency, CIA Insurance Services, using a further company called the Bentley Group Limited.

The jury found Booth and Hollier had lied under oath when giving evidence about the companies’ ownership in High Court company directors’ disqualification proceedings.

BIS senior investigation officer Simon Button welcomed the convictions. “The verdicts demonstrate the department’s determination to police the business community and root out dishonest practices and attempts to conceal them,” he said in a statement.

Hollier, 39, was was found guilty of two counts of perjury relating to Shakespeare Underwriting and CIA Insurance Services to the High Court in May 2006. He was also found guilty last Thursday of one count of fraudulent trading in the Bentley Group.

Booth, 59, was found guilty of one count of fraudulent trading for Shakespeare Underwriting, one count of fraudulent trading for the Bentley Group, one count of theft for £45,000 and two counts of perjury relating to Shakespeare Underwriting and CIA Insurance Services to the High Court in May 2006.

Hollier’s mother, Linda Letchford, 59, was originally charged with one count of fraudulent trading but this was dismissed at the close of the prosecution case.

The convictions came after a three-month trial at Warwick Crown Court in Leamington Spa.

Both defendants are due to be sentenced on 25 May 2012.

Shakespeare entered administration in January 2006 and was later sold to Welsh broker Moorhouse by its administrator, Tenon Recovery.