Birmingham broker who used premium funds for "expensive cars" fined £1.1m

The FCA has fined and banned the bankrupt owner of a Birmingham-based insurance broker, now in liquidation, for diverting funds for insurance premiums to buy expensive company cars and pay salaries even though he knew that these payments resulted in a "significant" shortfall in the business's assets.

By Neasa MacErlean

Leigh Mackey had sole management control of Inspire Insurance Services Ltd, based in Wythall near Birmingham, and admits that insurers are owed over £660,000 in unpaid premiums. The liquidator of Inspire, however, estimates that the shortfall - which built up between 2011 and 2018 - at more than £2.2m.