A jury unanimously acquitted Mr Fisher, the former CEO of Redcentric, of all charges on 11 February following a 14-week trial at Southwark Crown Court. Mr Fisher faced four counts of misleading the market pursuant to s.89 Financial Services Act 2012, in the first ever prosecution brought under this statutory provision.
The Financial Conduct Authority alleged that Mr Fisher had acted together with Redcentric’s former Finance Director, Estelle Croft, and former Chief Financial Officer, Mr Coleman, to dishonestly deceive the market as to the cash and debt position of the AIM-listed IT-services provider in 2015 and 2016. Ms Croft pleaded guilty to all charges in August 2021 and was sentenced to three years in prison. Mr Coleman was found guilty on Friday of four charges of making misleading statements to the market and other charges of false accounting. He will be sentenced in March 2022. The jury found Mr Fisher not guilty on all counts.
Richard Lissack QC and Leonora Sagan were instructed by Richard Burger, Euros Jones, Kelly Wilson and Amanda Lea of DWF LLP.
Links to press coverage of the verdict in The Times and the Financial Times can be found here and here. The statement from the FCA is here.
