FMA fights to keep ban on finance director

Trevor Ludlow at the Auckland District Court. File photo / NZ Herald

Convicted National Finance boss Trevor Allan Ludlow will face opposition from the Financial Markets Authority if he seeks permission to manage a company before an automatic five-year ban finishes.

Ludlow, was convicted in 2011 of six charges of theft by a person in a special relationship and one of false accounting in a case brought by the Serious Fraud Office.

He was sentenced by an Auckland District Court judge to five years and seven months in jail.

After pleading guilty to eight further charges brought by the FMA, Ludlow had an extra nine months added to his sentence by a High Court judge.

Ludlow is out of jail on parole and his convictions mean he is automatically banned from being a director of a company until December 2016.

An application to exempt him from that ban was discussed before Justice Mary Peters this morning in the High Court at Auckland, where Ludlow represented himself.

FMA lawyer Paul O'Neil said the authority had been in discussions with Ludlow over his role at a firm called UFB Civil 5.2 Ltd, which the Companies Office says is now in receivership and liquidation.

However, O'Neil said the situation was an unusual one as Ludlow's application said he wasn't engaged in management and didn't seek to be. If that was the case then no application was required, he said.

O'Neil said the FMA would oppose any attempt to waive the management ban.

Justice Peters adjourned the matter until September 1 for Ludlow to liaise with the FMA and Registrar of Companies about the sort of role he would have at the company.

If Ludlow did want an exemption from this management ban, he would have to reshape his application as it had not been put forward in the right form, the judge said.