Former Beacon Minerals project manager Alex McCulloch has been handed a 12-month jail term for insider trading but is unlikely to serve time behind bars.
Mr McCulloch was sentenced to 12 months in prison but will be immediately released on a $5,000 recognisance and a two-year good behaviour undertaking.
The insider trading charge related to the buying of 11 million shares in Beacon in January 2017 via two of Mr McCulloch’s associates, identified by ASIC as Christopher Allan Gall and Thomas James Collins.
At the time, Mr McCulloch oversaw the gold exploration drilling program at Beacon’s Jaurdi gold project.
The shares were found by the court to have been purchased after a drilling campaign was completed at Jaurdi, but before it was disclosed to the ASX.
Beacon shares increased 33 per cent when the results were released.
Mr McCulloch pleaded guilty to the charges in April and was sentenced in the Supreme Court of Western Australia by Justice Michael Gething.
Justice Gething noted Mr McCulloch was in a “senior position” and a “true insider” who was “‘trusted by the directors of Beacon Minerals to treat the information which you acquired and your analysis of that information in strict confidence”.
“Insider trading is a serious offence,” he said.
“A person who engages in insider trading uses inside information to gain an unfair advantage over other traders in the market. It is a species of fraud.
“Insider trading is not a victimless crime. Rather, there are at least two victims: the seller or sellers of the stock at the lower price, and the public whose confidence in the integrity of the market must be diminished.”
Geologist Darryl Mapleson was sentenced to 12 months of jail time last year, with a similar $5,000 good behaviour undertaking.
Mr Mapleston, who was engaged by Beacon to work on the same drilling campaign through his role at BM Geological Services, was also handed a $60,000 fine.
The charges against both men related to the same drilling campaign, completed in January of 2017.
