Geoffrey Collier, former head of securities at Morgan Grenfell, was given a 12-month suspended sentence and was fined �25,000 with �7,000 costs at the High Court in London.

The court heard that Collier's crime began last autumn when he was working on the secret takeover of engineering firm AE by Robert Maxwell.

Early on Monday 3rd November he rang a colleague at the Los Angeles branch of his former employer, Vickers de Costa, and instructed them to buy 60,000 AE shares through a nominee company.

At 0815 GMT, trading began in London with AE shares valued at 239p. When the Maxwell bid was announced 15 minutes later the shares had shot up to 265p. Collier had made �15,000 profit in less than an hour.

His actions were uncovered by colleagues in London who traced the deal to the Cayman Islands company that Collier had formed several years earlier.

Playing the game

Insider dealing occurs when somebody profits from trading shares based on confidential information, usually before public announcements.

City experts say there are frequently suspicious price movements in the markets and insider dealing is often the cause.

In passing judgement Mr Justice Farquharson said that people like Collier had "blemished the City's reputation throughout the community".

The sentence has cost Collier his career and six-figure salary, but opposition MPs still consider it an inadequate deterrent.

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