THE trial of financial adviser Roger Levitt and three of his
''underlings'' ended months ahead of schedule yesterday after one of his
co-defendants joined his former employer in admitting fraudulent trading
and another was acquitted.
Levitt and his former managing director and right-hand man Mark Reed,
who each face up to seven years jail, will be sentenced on Friday. Both
men were allowed bail until then.
Mr Justice Laws ordered a new trial against Mr Alan McNamara, former
director of the debt-ridden Roger Levitt Group, an empty shell of a
company which crashed in 1990 with debts of #34m.
Yesterday's developments followed Monday's unexpected change of plea
by 44-year-old Levitt, once one of Britain's richest men who specialised
in advising rich and famous clients.
The now bankrupt father-of-five, who ploughed nearly #900,000
belonging to thriller writer Frederick Forsyth into his ailing business
instead of buying bonds, admitted fraudulently misleading City watchdogs
Fimbra.
However Levitt, of St John's Wood, north London, still denied two
other aspects of the fraudulent trading charge -- but all four
defendants pled not guilty when the Southwark Crown Court trial began 13
days ago in a Chancery Lane annexe at the Old Bailey.
The parts of the charge denied by Levitt allege the fraudulent
production and distribution of false accounts and the fraudulent
injection of funds into his company, which sold mortgages and life
assurance.
Reed, 40, of Hampstead, north London, adopted a similar position,
telling the court he now admitted aiding and abetting Levitt to deceive
the financial regulators.
Mr David Cocks QC, prosecuting, on behalf of the Serious Fraud Office,
said in view of the two men's plea changes the Crown would no longer be
pursuing the outstanding parts of the charge and that Levitt's former
finance director, Mr Robert Price, could now be discharged.
Mr Price was granted defence costs which are to be paid from public
funds.
The 42-year-old, of Finchley, north London, suffered a ''mental
collapse'' in early spring 1990 -- months before Fimbra was deceived --
and never returned to work.
The Crown, therefore, would be offering no evidence against him on the
fraudulent trading charge, said Mr Cocks.
But, he added, McNamara, 29, of St John's Wood, would have to face a
new trial before a different jury.
Formal verdicts of guilty against Reed and not guilty against Price
were then returned by the jury foreman.
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