Broker gets 6 years as judge vows crackdown

A rogue stockbroker who stole shares worth more than $21 million from two trusting clients was jailed for six years yesterday as a judge warned that commercial crime would no longer be allowed to pay.

Koon Yee-poon, 44, whose case was compared to that of notorious Barings Bank trader Nick Leeson, sold the shares to fund his own disastrous speculation on the market.

'Gone are the days when sentences for what is euphemistically called 'white-collar crime' are so low that they present no punishment which is effective and no deterrent to others who may be tempted to commit similar offences,' Deputy Judge Gareth Lugar-Mawson said.

No longer will sentences be so lenient that 'the rewards of crime far outweigh the punishment', he added.

The judge said a maximum 10-year sentence was appropriate but reduced it to six years because of Koon's previous good character and pleas of guilty.

After the hearing, the sentence was welcomed by Detective Senior Inspector Iain Johnston from the Commercial Crime Bureau.

'I hope this puts the message across to all the other stockbrokers not to step out of line,' he said.