A TRUST company refused a licence by the Royal Court is appealing against that decision.

A preliminary hearing took place this week in the case of the Jersey Financial Services Commission versus Anchor Trust.

In October the Royal Court upheld the Commission’s decision to refuse the firm a licence to conduct trust company business under the Financial Services (Jersey) Law.

The court found that there were no grounds to quash the decision and that it was reasonable for the commission to refuse Anchor’s application.

The lengthy court judgment stated that certain clients of Anchor had been under suspicion by the Jersey Financial Crimes Unit of the States police since early 2002, when orders were issued under the Drug Trafficking Law.

Further inspection revealed ‘a number of concerns’ about Anchor and the investigation was extended and auditors brought in to review the accounts.

Having finally been refused a licence, in April last year the directors of Anchor wound up the company and made all 21 staff redundant.