A £25,000-a-week rogue City trader motivated by "pride" and "greed" has been jailed for two-and-a-half years after a shares gamble and cover-up cost his employers over £2.5 million.
Jonathan Bunn, 31, of The Villiers, Gower Road, Weybridge, Surrey, a broker with Bishopsgate-based Lewis Charles Securities Ltd. hoped the share price he would pay after agreeing unauthorised sales would plunge - resulting in huge profits.
However, the price he had to pay rose, wiping out any potential profit, leaving the company in the red and Bunn's immediate boss Stavros Loizou with a £350,000 personal loss.
Twelve staff were also made redundant, wages were slashed by 20% and the company lost £500,000 in annual contracts due to bad publicity.
Bunn pleaded guilty to falsifying a document required for an accounting purpose, namely four trade slips, which was misleading, false or deceptive regarding 4,350,000 HSBC shares between July 22 and 24, last year contrary to the Theft Act.
"People in the financial services industry must know if they behave dishonestly on the end of a phone putting other people's money at risk, in this case over £2.5 million, they will be punished for doing so," Recorder of Westminster Geoffrey Rivlin QC told Bunn.
"These offences amount to a very serious breach of trust and although you did not steal money from the company you were gambling with it in a reckless and dishonest manner.
"You have made a significant contribution in bringing this company, albeit temporarily, to it's knees," added the Judge.
Southwark Crown Court heard economics graduate Bunn, who had been licenced by the Financial Services Authority for ten years since leaving prestigious St. Andrew's University was employed on the Interdealing Broker Desk in March, last year.
"He was employed as a consultant and made and earned fifty per cent commission on sales he made," said prosecutor Mr. David Levy. "One could say he was flying high."
In the three months before the rogue trade Manchester-native Bunn earned £300,000, but also lost £75,000 gambling on share prices on an online spread-betting site.
"Mr. Bunn is a gambler with a personal interest in spread-betting and here he was gambling with his employer's reputation and their commitment to the market and the City and it backfired totally," added Mr. Levy.
"He submitted four fraudulent share purchase slips and handed these slips to the back office with the sole intention of misleading the firm into believing the sales were matched. The next day he didn't turn up for work."
Lewis Charles Securities Ltd. had to honour the trade, costing them £2,557,026, plus a further £322,000 in legal and insurance costs.
Bunn was suspended on August 4, resigned five days later and was arrested by City of London Police's Economic Crime Department on November 5.
"There is an element of greed, he wanted to make a commission," said Bunn's lawyer Mr. Gregory Fishwick. "There is also pride, he was told he was doing a good job and to keep going.
"He had made for himself significant profits and for the company some five hundred thousand pounds.
"He was responsible for the vast majority of the profits, he was propping the company up with the profits he was making.
"He has been thrown out by his wife, is living with his parents in Manchester and has lost his job and FSA registration," added Mr. Fishwick.
Bunn has no known assets and compensation will not be pursued.
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