Michael Bright’s grandmother hit the nail on the head. In 1999 the Independent Insurance chief executive told a newspaper why he loved the industry - one that he insisted was about more than just men in grey suits.

“Insurance fitted me like a glove and I had the talents that fitted the industry – strategy, motivation and an ability with figures,” he said. “[But] my grandmother always thought insurance salesmen were the crooks of the earth.”

Schadenfreude would be a fair description of the insurance industry’s reaction to Bright’s downfall. The bombastic chief executive had many detractors.

Independent had scooped up every industry award going and Bright presided over the Chartered Insurance Institute, where he seemed to take great pride in wearing the chains of office.

He knew that he was seen as arrogant, but was unrepentant: “I get a buzz out of stuffing the rest of the market, and my greatest satisfaction is that the market has suddenly realised that we are not a pair of barrow boys - we’re actually quite smart.”

Bright admitted in court that he was difficult to work with and that his executives may have been fearful of alerting him to problems within Independent. His own QC, Ian Winter, described him as “overbearing and unreasonable” with “a management style that was simply unacceptable”.

Bright brooked no dissent, withdrawing the company’s advertising from trade press that dared criticise the company. Mr Winter said yesterday that Bright was “truly sorry” for his actions. “He wishes through me to apologise to each and every person who lost money as a result of the collapse,” the QC said.

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