New Milton Advertiser 13th Nov 2020

Friday 13th November 2020 · 13 News

news@adt.press · advertising@adt.press · 01425 613384

Forest banker facing US jail as appeal fails

Fine for careless car park driving CARELESSLY driving a 4x4 in a supermarket car park cost a motorist more than £900 when he appeared be - fore magistrates. Robert Hillier (79), of Cliff Drive, Christchurch, pleaded guilty to driving a Land Rov- er in the town’s Sainsbury’s car park, off Lyndhurst Road, without due care and attention on 4th December 2019. Placing three penalty points on his licence, the Poole Bench fined Hillier £750 and told him to pay £160 in court costs. Parish clerk quits after year BROCKENHURST’S parish clerk has decided to resign after a year in the job be- cause the role is not suited to him. Jim Bailey confirmed he will leave at the end of November, telling the A&T: “I have done the job for a year and it is clear that it doesn’t play to my personal strengths so have decided to investigate opportuni- ties elsewhere.” Vandals target police vehicle POLICE are hunting vandals who targeted a marked pa- trol car while it was parked in Hurn. Two holes were smashed in the vehicle’s windscreen and damage was caused to a door in the attack near Hurn post office in Matchams Lane, which is believed to have taken place during Saturday night. Anyone with information should contact officers on 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. PHONE 01425 612594 to place a display advertisement

Supreme Court throws out latest attempt to overturn conviction

BY JON WALLER

A NEW Forest man could re- turn to a US jail after his second bid to challenge convictions for a $3.5bn energy deal fraud was rejected by the country’s high- est court. Mark Johnson, from Burley, had his petition rejected by the Supreme Court after his defence team sought to launch another appeal or have Mr Johnson’s original trial rerun. The former HSBC foreign currency executive was given a two-year jail sentence and $300,000 fine in April 2018 hav - ing been found guilty by a jury of nine counts of fraud and one of conspiracy at a high-profile trial in New York. During his banking career Mr Johnson worked in London and New York while living in Burley with his children and wife, Di- ane. He played several seasons with Ellingham and Ringwood Rugby Club, making appear- ances for the first XV and on occasion captaining the third team. The case came from a com- plex transaction in 2011 in which Mr Johnson was found to have manipulated currency values for the benefit of himself and about $8m for the bank. Edinburgh-based Cairn Ener-

A hole lot of money raised by golfers Hoburne Park sales advisor Harry Studt, general manager Dave Absalom, organiser Mel Ford and holiday homeowner Barry Graham

A VAN that rolled down a Lym - ington slipway into the river did not have its handbrake on, it has emerged. Coastguards and lifeboat crew worked with staff from Lymington Harbour Commis- sion and the Lymington Town Sailing Club, to recover the ve- hicle near Bath Road on Satur- day 31st October. Harbour master Ryan Wil- legers explained: “One our mooring holders parked his truck at the top of the slipway so he could quickly check on his boat – and forgot to put the handbrake on. Mel owns a holiday home at Hoburne Park in Christchurch, and was joined by staff and fel- low owners for the competition, which is now in its fourth year. The cash went to Abby’s He- roes, which was set up by her parents, Sally and David Ran- dall, to support families whose children are being treated at Southampton General Hos- AN ANNUAL golf competition raised over £1,200 in memory of a youngster who died from a rare form of bone cancer. The event at Crane Valley Golf Club, Verwood, was organ - ised before lockdown by Mel Ford, whose granddaughter Abby Randall died in 2016 aged just 11.

pital’s Piam Brown ward and the Teenage and Young Adult Unit. Mel said: “It was a fantastic day in memory of our Abby and after what has been a very diffi - cult year due to the coronavirus pandemic, we are delighted to have raised so much money. “Each year the event keeps growing and we are grateful for everyone’s help and contri- bution to a charity that is very close to my heart. “We would also like to say a huge thank you to Hoburne Park for sponsoring bacon rolls and to Crane Valley Golf Club for helping to organise an event that met the government guide- lines to keep everyone safe.”

Mark Johnson was given a two-year jail term in 2018 after being found guilty of a £3.5bn fraud

gy had asked HSBC to convert proceeds from the sale of an Indian subsidiary from dollars into pounds. Mr Johnson’s trial hinged in part on whether he and HSBC owed a fiduciary responsibility to the oil com- pany compelling them to find the cheapest possible rate for a large transaction. When the trade was executed

it netted the bank an $8m profit – 0.2% of the original deal. A se - cret recording caught Mr John- son saying: “F***ing Christmas” when told that figure. But after the conviction, fi - nancial experts raised ques- tions over the case and claimed that, should the guilty verdicts stand, there would be huge im- plications for foreign exchange traders.

Co-defendant Stuart Scott, who denied any wrongdoing, successfully challenged an ex- tradition order and had the case against him dropped. Mr Johnson went to prison after the guilty verdicts but was released weeks later upon his appeal. Mr Johnson and his attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, did not respond to a request for comment by the A&T.

Tough brake for van owner

Zooming in on virtual meeting costs

“Unfortunately it was high tide and it rolled down the slip- way and sank. The coastguard notified me of the situation at 10.20am.” The truck was submerged for around an hour before a rescue team was able to tow it out us- ing a tractor owned by Lyming- ton Town Sailing Club.

“WE shouldn’t exclude the public.” This was the warning from New Milton’s mayor as the town council debated changing how it holds online meetings. With the Covid-19 pandem - ic having prevented discus- sion in person at the town hall in Ashley Road since March,

councillors have used video conferencing website Zoom in- stead. A recent finance and gen - eral purposes meeting heard the council had paid Bourne- mouth-based Rejuvenate IT nearly £1,050 in September – of which a substantial part was training for the so far

unused Microsoft Teams com- munications platform. Committee chair Cllr Steve Davies suggested Microsoft Teams could be used instead of Zoom from the new year on- wards to bring the council in line with other organisations. But mayor Cllr Alvin Reid expressed concerns that mem-

bers of the public were gener- ally not as familiar with Micro- soft Teams as they were with Zoom. “I’d like to think that we would use a service that is easi- er for members of the public to use,” he said. “We shouldn’t ex- clude the public from our meet- ings.”