some young trader in Singapore can gamble it away on something called derivatives,” he said. “I got involved with the City’s two blue chip institutions and my experiences show that no one is safe.”A spokesman for Ernst & Young said cash deposits were unlikely to be returned.However, could it be that, since Barings issued Mr Stearn’s guarantee, it would be responsible in the event of a call on his assets?”No,” said a Lloyd’s spokesman. And the last three sets of results at Lloyd’s, totalling deficits of £6.4bn, mean that most members have faced losses running into six figures.”I just think that people ought to know that when they go into a bank to deposit some money … “I had deposited a large sum of money so that Barings could issue a bank guarantee to Lloyd’s so I could continue trading as a `name’,” he said yesterday.”But now I’m told it has been frozen I simply can’t believe my bad luck. I have lost money at Lloyd’s for three years running – and now this happens. “Mr Stearn, a marketing consultant from Woking, Surrey, will not say how much he deposited at Barings, nor how much he lost at Lloyd’s.However, Lloyd’s `names’ must have £250,000 in unencumbered assets to be called upon in the event of a loss. Michael Stearn, 50, deposited enough money at Barings to enable him to continue underwriting after three successive losing years in the insurance market, but discovered this week that all the cash has been frozen.He is one of a growing number of individuals, charities, pension funds and corporations waiting to find out if their assets will ever be recovered following the disastrous collapse of Barings on Sunday.Potential new victims to come forward yesterday included the London Transport pension fund, which could lose up to £20m.Mr Stearn’s problems began when administrators Ernst & Young froze the assets of Baring Brothers & Co, the banking arm of the group.

BY STEVE BOGGAN

Heard the one about the man who lost a packet at Lloyd’s so put his money where it would be safe … Barings?
No, it is not a joke, but it could be the archetypal investment story of the Nineties. He was taken before magistrates and fined S$200 (£125).Authorities in Singapore said yesterday that Mrs Leeson had booked a flight on Silk Airlines to Phuket last week, while Mr Leeson booked into the Regent hotel in Kuala Lumpur, paying for the Malaysian $300 bill with a company credit card.One respected newspaper in Singapore received a tip that Mr Leeson was travelling to Canada via Hong Kong under the name John Halls But, it was not possible to confirm the report last night.. He refused requests to apologise and dared the women to report him to police, handing over his mobile phone. Her headmaster, Douglas MacIldowie, described her yesterday as honest and reliable.As unconfirmed reports reached London last night that Thai police believed Mr Leeson was hiding in an unnamed southern province, rumoured to be the resort of Phuket, more details about his character emerged from Singapore.He was convicted of indecent exposure five months ago, when he dropped his trousers in front of women at a disco in the exclusive Orchard Plaza area of the city. She has certainly never played a role in the settlements department.”Mrs Leeson, whose maiden name was Sims, has family in the picturesque village of West Kingsdown, in Kent.She attended Swanley secondary school and went on to pass two A-levels in accounting and economics.

She has no personnel file.”An employee in the “back room” at Barings Futures in Singapore told the Independent: “Lisa has never worked here. “There is no evidence of her having ever worked in the office in Singapore. She had worked in the London settlements room until 1992 when she and Mr Leeson married.
“He was transferred to Singapore as an employee but our records show she was not a member of staff,” a spokeswoman said. But the merchant bank described the report as “nonsense”, insisting that she was not a member of staff.

The report, in the Daily Telegraph, said that Mrs Leeson, 26, had worked in the settlements office at Barings in Singapore, a post that would have given her the opportunity to cover up her husband’s fictitious futures contracts. The cash is likely to be used to pay creditors and is unlikely to be returned.. Barings moved quickly yesterday to deny a report that Lisa Leeson, wife of the fugitive banker Nick Leeson, could have been an accomplice in his rogue trading, writes Steve Boggan. Most appears to have been deposited with Baring Brothers & Co bank, whose assets have been frozen. They could be realised at any time; indeed, Baring Investment Management was not in administration and was continuing to manage pension funds.Problems arose, he said, with liquid assets, cash that had not been spent on stocks and shares.