It hardly needs restating that securing an internship is a great way of gaining experience and often leads to a full-time position. So here's some advice. If you land a temporary role with a major-league financial institution, don't use it as an opportunity to dabble in a little illegal insider trading.
British student Matthew Uberoi must wish he had heeded this advice after he was jailed for a year for passing information about forthcoming merger and takeover deals to his father, who made nearly £110,000 from three stock market deals. Neel Uberoi, a 62 year-old dentist, was also jailed for his part in the scheme.
Matthew, who was just 21 at the time, was on a six-month placement with Hoare Govett, the brokers of Dutch bank ABN Amro, who were advising on the deals being announced.
Bizarrely, the younger Uberoi apparently used coded messages about Chinese food to send his father tips on forthcoming deals.
We suspect that a career in finance no longer beckons for him (but had this happened a few years ago, who knows?)
