P.M. BRIEFING : Ex-Guinness Chief Gets 5 Years

A judge today sentenced the former head of Guinness PLC to five years in jail for what he called “dishonesty on a massive scale” in the company’s hotly contested takeover of a Scottish distillery four years ago.

Judge Sir Denis Henry also levied the biggest fine on record from a British court, nearly $10 million, against another defendant in the case.

The judge sentenced Ernest Saunders, 54, the former chairman and chief executive of Guinness, to five years in prison on two counts of conspiracy and two counts of theft. Saunders was also sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison on eight counts of false accounting. The sentences are to be served concurrently.

Co-defendant Gerald Ronson, 51, chairman of Heron International PLC, was sentenced to one year in prison, fined $9.75 million, and was ordered to pay about $858,000 in prosecution costs. The fine was the largest ever imposed by a British court. The previous high was $750,000, assessed against the National Graphical Assn. in 1983 for illegally picketing a newspaper plant, according to the Guinness Book of Records. The book is owned by a subsidiary of Guinness PLC.