Fingered
A BUBBLE marked 'Expletive deleted' hung from the mouth of Sir Peter Green, chairman of Lloyd's, as he left the High Court. Ian Posgate had won the first of his battles against expulsion. Now he has won the last. His successful appeal to Lord Wilberforce has caused the Council of Lloyd's to quash his sentence, and, after a six-month suspension, Lloyd's fallen star will shed his golden radiance once more. A few more bubbles can be read over Lloyd's. Chairman Peter Miller and Chief executive Ian Hay Davison need above all things to show that Lloyd's can police its own affairs, that the Council's writ runs and that wrongdoers will be punished accordingly. They cannot enjoy being overruled on appeal, and not for the first time. Mr Posgate for his part fairly says that his actions have not lost anybody any money, and that he did not 'divert' money from the members to his own benefit or anybody else's. I wonder whether he might have said more. Three of his former colleagues on the Alexander Howden were expelled this week. There was never much love lost between them and Mr Posgate, and I have long believed that the misdoings at Howden came to light, not because some accountant was clever enough to spot what half-a-dozen previous accountants had missed, but rather because someone told this particular accountant where to look.
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