The Serious Fraud Office has secured a suspended 10 month prison sentence against Michael Thomson, the former CEO of failed mini-bond provider London Capital & Finance (LCF).

The sentence, suspended for two years, was imposed at Southwark Crown Court today because Mr Thomson was found to have breached a restraint order on use of his bank accounts.

Mr Thomson, 50, was CEO of mini-bond provider LCF which collapsed in 2019 leaving 11,000 investors with combined losses of over £237m.

The suspended sentence means that if he commits any other criminal offence during the two year suspended period he can be brought back to court and the original sentence may be activated.

The SFO found that that Mr Thomson had hidden £95,000 he received after the restraint order was imposed. The sum included £55,000 from a tax rebate and a fraudulent insurance claim worth £40,000 for repair work to a barn that was never completed. The money was paid into an account owned by Mr Thomson’s wife in an attempt to hide the money from the SFO, the SFO said.

SFO investigators found that Mr Thomson spent some of the money to further "conceal and hamper" its recovery: spending £5,000 on a holiday in Italy, buying a £3,900 horse saddle, spending £1,170 on a hotel and spa stay in Torquay and paying £5,495 for a hot tub.

The restraint order includes an exception which permits Mr Thomson only to meet reasonable living expenses from his bank accounts.

Lisa Osofsky, director of the Serious Fraud Office, said: “Today’s result makes clear: company executives are not above the law. When they break it, we have the means and the resolve to go after their money, no matter where they hide it.

“Over the past two years we have traced and seized every asset we have gone after, recovering over £140m for taxpayers.”