Scandal leads to £225,000 fine for Blue Oar
A major investigation by Financial Mail into a scandal involving Aim-listed services company Worthington Nicholls has resulted in a £225,000 fine for a leading City broker.
Mark Worthington: Raised millions through share sales.
Financial Mail uncovered concerns about broker Blue Oar's role as adviser in the flotation of Worthington in 2006 and a series of subsequent upbeat trading statements that helped to lift its share price from 50p to a high of 194p.
Read Financial Mail's investigation into Worthington Nicholls...
Blue Oar, recently renamed Astaire Securities, was censured and fined by the London Stock Exchange last week. It was the second-biggest fine it has ever levied on an Aim-nominated adviser.
The air-conditioning group's directors, including chief executive Mark Worthington, raised millions through share sales. At one point, he bought the wife of Gavin Haywood, a salesman at Blue Oar, a Porsche. But the firm was later forced to issue a series of profits warnings and the share price crashed.
The shares were suspended and £15.9m was written off the value of the company's assets while Blue Oar, whose dealings with Worthington were through its Blue Oar Securities subsidiary, was replaced as adviser.
Worthington stepped down in 2007 and shareholders installed turnround specialist Simon Beart. The company was renamed Managed Support Services. This month it produced healthy results. Astaire said last week that it had strengthened its compliance and monitoring procedures. 'None of the executives involved in the matters that gave rise to the censure remains employed by the company,' it said.
However, while executives at the securities subsidiary have left, Astaire's chief executive, Edward Vandyk, and Oliver Vaughan, who was reappointed chairman on Friday, and David Snow, who was reappointed as a non-executive director, were all at the firm at the time.
A Serious Fraud Office investigation is continuing.
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