Timothy Coleman, former chief financial officer of Redcentric Plc, was convicted in February 2022 of false accounting and making misleading statements to the market – resulting in a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence being imposed.

Southwark Crown Court has now imposed a confiscation order of £355,369 against him and ordered him to pay £119,630 of prosecution costs.

Redcentric, an IT service provider and AIM-listed company, issued false and misleading unaudited interim results in November 2015, and false and misleading audited final year results in June 2016. Both statements materially overstated Redcentric’s cash position – by £13.1m and £12.2m respectively – and consequently downplayed its debt. Shareholders suffered losses when the true position was revealed.

The Financial Conduct Authority said Mr Coleman had inflated the cash position that was presented to the Redcentric Board and had used the same false figures to assure key investors about Redcentric’s financial position, persuading them not to sell down their investment in the company. As a result of the false statements, the share price of Redcentric shares was inflated, meaning investors paid more for shares than they were worth.

The confiscation order of £355,369 represents the value of Mr Coleman’s financial benefit from these offences.

If the money is not repaid within a month, he will receive a further three-and-a-half year prison sentence.

Steve Smart, FCA Joint Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight, said: “As CFO of a public company, Mr Coleman was supposed to uphold the highest standards of integrity on which his shareholders depended.

"By cooking the books and misleading the market, he caused serious harm to those people – this order sends a signal to anyone who misleads the market that they will be liable to pay even when they're behind bars.”

Redcentric was contacted for comment.

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