The three chiefs of Independent Insurance were jailed today after a jury found them guilty of conspiracy to defraud.

Michael Bright, the founder and former chief executive, was sentenced to seven years, Dennis Lomas, his former finance director received four years, and Philip Condon, deputy managing director, three years.

Bright was barred from being a company director for 12 years and Lomas and Condon banned for 10 years.

Judge Geoffrey Rivlin, QC, told Bright: "If any offence should attract the maximum penalty it is this one."

He said the criminal cover-up of the initial fraud amounted to a “serious disease” of “prolonged and grave dishonesty”.

Justice Rivlin told Bright his fraud had begun in a relatively minor way, adding: "But by November 1998 you had determined on a course of dishonesty and thereafter in 1999, under your clear instruction and with your knowledge, it steam-rollered out of control".

"You introduced a fear factor into the working lives of your managers. It was against this background that your fraud was able to thrive."

The judge added: "The truth is you corrupted a lot of people along the way, including your co-defendants, and the brazen manner in which you sought to blame your very able and hard-working employees for dishonest practices you yourself had introduced and put into operation has done little to confirm that you are truly sorry.

“You, Bright, were a figurehead in the insurance world and held a position of great responsibility in Independent Insurance.

“I believe the truly serious disease which you infected this company with and the lives of the many people connected with it was at your initiation.”

Justice Rivlin said that in sentencing Bright he had taken into account Bright's age and the fact he was unlikely to work again.

Bright, wearing a yellow polo shirt and a pinstripe suit, looked shocked as he was led from the dock.

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