The former head of communications at the listed headhunter Whitehead Mann has been fined £15,000 for insider share dealing by the financial services watchdog.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) found Peter Bracken to have misused confidential information to trade in shares for his own personal profit. It said that the case was “particularly serious” because Bracken had abused a privileged position of trust for his own ends.

Bracken found out Whitehead Mann was due to issue a negative trading statement on 26 September 2002. He then asked his stockbroker, WH Ireland, to short-sell 5,000 of his shares in the company on the London Stock Exchange, netting him a £2,430 profit.

Bracken told the stockbroker to place the place the proceeds in an account set up in his wife’s name.

In November 2002, Bracken executed a similar procedure when he discovered that the firm’s chief executive was due to step down.

Jeremy Summers, solicitor for Bracken, told Recruiter: “Although Mr Bracken was disappointed with the outcome of the FSA’s investigation, he nevertheless accepts the findings and wishes to draw a line under the matter.”

A spokeswoman for Whitehead Mann said: “This is a private matter between the FSA and Peter Bracken.”