There is an interesting story out of London where banker Jonathan Burrows has been banned from working in the financial services industry. Another cases of fudged books or fraudulent earnings reports? No, Burrows was nabbed skipping the full fare on his commutes to work from Stonegate to London — paying roughly 7 pounds instead of 21 pounds for the daily trips.

Burrows was the BlackRock director before his identification as a train [fare] robbers. This is how he did it. Stonegate, you see, has no ticket gate barrier. So, Burrows would ride to London and pay as if he got on within the city rather than outside of the city. He did this for years until inspectors caught him.

He paid 43,000 pounds ($67,000) in an out-of-court-settlement with Southeastern railways. That is about 20,000 more pounds than would have been cost of season tickets. However, it comes at the added cost of being banned by the FCA and tossed from his job. He was forced to leave as a managing director of BlackRock Asset Management Investor Services after the scandal. The FCA then ruled that Burrow’s “conduct fell short of the standards” of a senior manager.

In this country, we do not even bring criminal charges for bankers who routinely engaged in fraudulent conduct worth billions and almost tanked the economy. In England, bankers are being banned for what is essentially turnstile jumping. Hmmmm.

Source: Globe and Mail