THE boss of a successful company has been told to pay compensation to three teenage boys for exposing himself in front of them.

Shaun Ward, 42, of Barnhill Road, Tolleshunt Knights, avoided a jail sentence after he admitted the offences.

Ward was told by a Chelmsford Crown Court judge he had brought shame on himself.

Judge Anthony Goldstaub QC told Ward to pay each of his victims £1,500 compensation for the “outrage he perpetrated in their presence”.

Ward admitted exposing himself to the three youths, two aged 18 and one aged 16.

He was jailed for nine months, suspended for two years, and given a 180-hour unpaid work order.

Ward, the founder of Essex-based body armour company, Vestguard UK, which supplies body armour for the military and police, must stay on the sex offenders’ register for ten years.

Ward was also given a sexual offences’ prevention order, banning him from employing or working with anyone aged under 18, or driving with them in a car, unless their parents or guardian knows of his criminal past.

Judge Goldstaub told Ward he was also imposing a restraining order preventing him from contacting the three teenagers and ordered him to pay £2,800 costs.

He said: “You are a man of good character, a distinguished businessman. “You own and manage a thriving company. You brought shame on yourself.”

Ward had been due to face a trial on the charges, but changed his pleas to guilty.

Paul Raudnitz, mitigating, said: “There was an element of misjudgment as to how precisely his behaviour might have been received by the three young men.”