FORMER insurance and investment broker Mark A. Synnott, whose firm collapsed with debts of more than Pounds 2 million, has become the first company director in the Republic to be jailed for fraudulent trading.

He was jailed for four years and three months by Judge Cyril Kelly after he pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to one charge of fraudulent trading and two charges of fraudulent conversion.

A total of some Pounds 400,000 was involved in the fraudulent trading charge. Synnott was also disqualified from acting as a company director, auditor or manager for 10 years.

"He was a man completely wrapped up in a fantasy world he had created inside his own head," Mr Peter Charleton SC (with Mr John Major), defending, said.

The company, Mark Synnott (Life and Pensions) Brokers Limited, was effectively trading insolvently since 1982 and was also unbonded, Mr Charleton added.

Judge Kelly said it was a nasty and callous deceit with a clear intention to defraud. Synnott had induced people to invest their money with promises of high return and had wreaked havoc on elderly and vulnerable people.

Judge Kelly praised Det Garda Jim Flanagan for what he failed his meticulous and diligent investigation of a complicated case. He also thanked counsel on both sides for their handling of the case.

The case marked the first time the prosecution had successfully obtained a conviction for fraudulent trading under the 1990 Companies Amendment Act.

Synnott wasted the funds on a combination of high living and trying to reimburse investors lured by his excessive promises of returns of up to 25 per cent. He also used some of the money invested with him as a down payment on the purchase of Cruicerath House and Stud near Kill, Co Kildare.

The court heard the company was a long established, respected business which was founded by the defendant's father, who died in January 1992 it began as an insurance brokerage and the defendant was the driving force behind going into investment broking.

Mr Maurice Gaffney SC (with Mr Shane Murphy), prosecuting, said the charges originated in the "very disturbing" findings of a provisional liquidator called in by Synnott when a petition had been made by an investor to have the company wound up in June 1991.

Synnott (49), married but separated, with an address at Bettystown, Co Meath, admitted three charges from a total of 39 on the indictment. The prosecution entered a nolle prosequi on the remaining charges.

The fraudulent trading charge alleged that, between September 2nd, 1990, and June 13th, 1991, he was knowingly a party to the carrying on of the business of Mark Synnott (Life and Pensions) Brokers Ltd with intent to defraud the creditors of the company by falsely pretending that he, as a director, was engaged in the bonafide business of investing monies entrusted to him when he knew the company was insolvent.

He also pleaded guilty to fraudulently converting sums of Pounds 40,000 of the company's money to his own use on a date between June 23rd and June 26th, 1990, and Pounds 10,000 between January 28th and February 1st, 1991.

Det Garda Flanagan said Synnott used the Pounds 40,000 in the June 1990 charge as the down payment on Cruicerath House. The Pounds 40,000 was transferred from one of the company's accounts to the defendant's own personal account on his direction on the understanding a letter of authorisation would follow. No such letter was received by the bank.

Det Garda Flanagan said there was no hope of recovering any of the money. Synnott had not secreted any funds and now lived on social welfare with his elderly mother in Co Meath.

He agreed with Mr Charleton that family assets including a house at Serpentine Avenue, Ballsbridge, and the Cruicerath stud had been sold and the funds passed to the liquidator. The Ballsbridge house realised Pounds 300,000. There were mortgages on the properties and some of the proceeds were passed to Synnott's estranged wife.

Det Garda Flanagan told Judge Kelly the investors had fared very badly. Most of them were now living on social welfare instead of on the returns of their money.