The 45-year-old was first arrested in 2013 and admitted buying shares in EnCore Oil and Cairn Energy on the back of information from colleagues before it was made public.
At his sentencing on Wednesday, trial judge HHJ Goymer slammed Lyttleton’s crimes as “blatantly dishonest” and said insider dealing was not a victimless crime.
He sentenced him to 18 months in prison, reduced to 12 months on credit, confiscated £149,861 and fined him £82,225.
The charges of insider dealing date back to 2011 when he was given insider information during discussions about EnCore and Cairns while working in the firm’s EMEA fundamental equity team.
He made a £44,000 profit buying 175,000 EnCore shares before news of an imminent acquisition by Premier Oil was made public and selling them shortly after their price jumped, Southwark Crown Court heard.
The former ‘star’ manager dealt through an overseas asset manager based in Panama, called Huduno Invest S.A, which he had set up using his wife’s maiden name.
Incriminating mobile phone messages ordering the trade were found during an investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and two further mobile phones, one registered under a fake name and address, were used to secretly contact his Swiss asset manager.
Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Lyttleton’s insider dealing involved a gross abuse of the trust placed in him as a senior fund manager. He tried to hide his misconduct through the use of unregistered mobile phones and setting up a company in his wife’s maiden name in an overseas jurisdiction. None of this meant he could avoid detection.
