STOCKBROKERS are usually a pretty sober sided bunch of paper shufflers. When regrettably some maverick is tempted to stray from the path of righteousness and dip into clients' funds it's often difficult to break the judicious habits of the profession. Embezzled cash tends to be spent productively, improving an already enviable lifestyle or deposited in clandestine high interest bearing offshore accounts.

Reports this week of legal action against a group of New York stockbrokers, who allegedly ripped off £50 million from client accounts, confers a little unwanted colour on the sedate profession. Prosecutors, in a 172 count indictment, said that eleven individuals in the Manhattan broking firm of A.R. Barton used "every conceivable form of dishonesty" to rip off £50 million from 8,000 investors, scandalously wasting most of the stolen money on lap top dancers, fast blondes and slow race horses. Appalling, but you have to grudgingly admire their panache.