Chief executive of collapsed finance company who hid £95,000 from investigators to spend on horses, holidays and hot tubs avoids jail
- Michael Thomson, 50, received a ten-month sentence, suspended for two years
- LCF went into administration in January 2019 suffering losses of £236 million
The former chief executive of a collapsed finance company has escaped jail after hiding £95,000 from investigators to fund his lifestyle of horses, holidays and hot tubs.
Michael Thomson, 50, received a ten-month sentence, suspended for two years, for breaching the restraint order on his bank account imposed by the Serious Fraud Office.
Mr Thomson’s assets were frozen in 2019 as part of an investigation into suspected fraud and money laundering at London Capital and Finance where he was CEO.
LCF went into administration in January 2019 suffering losses of £236 million – which rocked its 11,605 bondholders – many of who were pensioners and invested their life savings.
According to the SFO, he funnelled money into his wife’s unrestrained bank account which was not subject to the order and splashed out on a £5,000 Italian holiday, a £5,495 hot tub, a £3,900 riding saddle, £1,170 on a hotel spa in Torquay and £3,000 at the retailer Next.
Michael Thomson, 50, former CEO of London Capital and Finance, has escaped jail after hiding £95,000 from investigators
He received a ten-month sentence, suspended for two years, for breaching the restraint order on his bank account imposed by the Serious Fraud Office
The money came from a £40,000 insurance payout for damage to a barn that Mr Thomson never completed repair works on and remains a ‘three-sided timber frame’.
In September 2020 the SFO identified the false insurance claim but in January 2021 Mr Thomson insisted this was for repair work and was not a breach of his restraint order.
But at the end of 2021 the SFO learned that a further £55,000 for a stamp duty refund was paid into Mrs Thomson’s account – in an attempt to hide the money.
In July 2022 Mr Thomson eventually admitted a breach and contempt of court for both the insurance claim and stamp duty refund.
Today, Judge Alexander Milne KC said he spared the CEO jail because of this admission and his compliance since and considering the toll prison would take on his already poor mental health.
Judge Milne said: ‘There are serious matters, there is no doubt, but I have taken account of the delay in sentencing that has been hanging over him and his family for three years.’
Mr Thomson lives in a £2million converted barn in Sussex, which has a 52ft drawing room, six bedrooms, a heated swimming pool and seven acres of gardens overlooking the South Downs.
The property, purchased two weeks before the financial watchdog froze LCF’s accounts, has increased in value by £900,000.
While some victims have been compensated, it’s estimated by Smith and Williamson, the administrators of LCF, that many will get as little as 20 per cent of their money back.
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