Queens Moat Houses' convictions

Two directors of the firm that administered Queens Moat Houses' share register were sentenced yesterday to 120 hours of community service after being convicted of insider dealing in the company's shares, writes Jill Treanor.

They were also ordered to pay pounds 7,500 to the Department of Trade and Industry in costs.

Geoffrey Atkinson and John Hawksby, former employee directors of White Rose Registrars of Kettering, were found guilty at Middlesex Crown Count on 1 November of three offences of insider dealing under the Company Securities (Insider Dealing) Act 1985. White Rose Registrars was the Kettering firm which at that time kept QMH's share register. The two men dealt in the shares after acquiring unpublished, price-sensitive information about instructions sent by QMH's finance director relating to the payment of dividend warrants, just before QMH was brought to its knees in 1993 by pounds 1bn of debt.

The DTI confirmed yesterday it would not retry Douglas Swinden, a former director of Eastern Electricity, on insider dealing charges, after a jury failed to agree a verdict earlier this week.