An insurance worker has been given a suspended jail term after being held to be in contempt of court.

Gregory Nicholas Taylor was found to have deliberately and flagrantly disobeyed with a high court freezing and disclosure order.

He is also facing sentencing in the criminal court after pleading guilty to a £200,000 theft and to cocaine possession.

A high court order made in April required Mr Taylor to detail all his worldwide assets, whether solely or jointly limited, including the value and location of all bank accounts.

He also had to produce any relevant documents in his ’possession, custody or power’ correspondence, emails, invoices, transaction advices and bank statements.

Statements for Barclays and HSBC accounts related to the ’stolen funds’ cited in the affidavit dated April 8, 2019 of Elizabeth Grayton, executive chairman of claimant Templeton Insurance.

However, despite the three extensions, Mr Taylor had not complied with the orders. A default judgment, dated June 12, had been obtained against Mr Taylor for the sum of £216,676.93.

Deemster Andrew Corlett said he was quite satisfied that the custody threshold had been passed in this case.

Exceptional

But he was persuaded to take the ’exceptional’ course of suspending that sentence.

The Deemster said: ’In my view, immediate custody for contempt of court should be reserved for serious breaches of freezing orders which have caused serious detriment to the applicant.

’I accept that this was a sin of omission rather than commission.’ He handed down a sentence of 30 days’ imprisonment of 30 days suspended for 12 months.

Mr Taylor, 30, of Park Avenue, Douglas, has been committed for sentencing to the Court of General Gaol after pleading guilty to offences of theft and cocaine possession.

He stole £213,068.43 over a two-year period while he was working for Templeton Insurance, based in Peel Road, Douglas.

Prosecutor James Robinson told the court that Mr Taylor worked at Templeton between February 2017 and February 2019. He was suspended by the company in February due to an internal investigation at the company.

His bank accounts were examined by police and he admitted the thefts when he was arrested and interviewed.

Mr Taylor said he had taken the cash to fund a drug habit, gambling and alcohol addiction and that there was no money left.

He has been bailed by the High Bailiff Jayne Hughes pending his appearance at the higher court with conditions that he reside at his home address and not leave the island without court permission.