NSW man jailed for market manipulation (ASIC, 2015)

Judgment entered

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 2, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

Report an error in this record (asic-15-271mr-matched-orders-2015) by email

In 2015, a New South Wales court sentenced day trader Nigel Derek Heath to two years and three months in prison, with release after nine months, for two market manipulation offences: price-lifting trades in Petsec Energy and simultaneous "matched trades" in four resource stocks.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

—

Alleged gain

—

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission announced this matter on September 25, 2015 as release 15-271MR. The respondent named is Nigel Derek Heath (1 individual, 0 entities).

The sentence follows the guilty pleas reported by ASIC a year earlier. The charges cover 138 transactions in Petsec Energy products and 30 simultaneous buy-and-sell transactions in four ASX-listed companies, all placed through nine accounts between February 2012 and October 2013.

This library tags the matter as matched orders and price manipulation, based on the conduct the regulator describes. Each tag links to a page explaining how that technique works, what statute it engages, and what penalties comparable actions have attracted. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

The sentence was two years and three months of imprisonment, with release after nine months on a recognizance of A$10,000 and eighteen months of good behaviour. The release records no fine.

This is a criminal conviction recorded in the release. The sentence was later reduced on appeal; see the 2016 record for the same matter.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with 2 techniques in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Matched orders — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
• Price manipulation — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2015-09-25 ASIC media release

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• ASIC media release

The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Same matter

The library links these 3 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.