[3] With financial assistance from his eldest brother John Philipps (who was later created the 1st Viscount St Davids), Philipps set up his own shipping firm Philipps & Co in 1888, bought his first ship in 1889 and by the end of the nineteenth century the two brothers owned two shipping lines (King Line Ltd and the Scottish Steamship Company), a finance company (the London Maritime Investment Company), and the London and Thames Haven Petroleum Wharf.

[5] However, he eventually trailed a distant third at the selection conference held at Water Street Chapel, Carmarthen, and the nomination went to Hinds.

Lord St Davids made his concerns public, and the stock market values of the whole group declined sharply.

Worried by these revelations and fearing an economic crisis, the British government appointed the accountant William McLintock to investigate the group's finances.

[3] In February 1931, Kylsant and his wife went to the Union of South Africa on holiday, and in his absence McLintock revealed that for several years the Royal Mail Steam Packet group had been paying dividends to stockholders despite trading at a loss.

[3] On his return from South Africa, Kylsant was arrested and charged with making false statements with regard to company accounts for 1926 and 1927, contrary to section 84 of the Larceny Act 1861.

Kylsant's appeal against the conviction and sentence was heard in November 1931, when it was dismissed, and he subsequently served ten months in Wormwood Scrubs prison before being released in August 1932.

[3] In his obituary, The Times reported: Lord Kylsant bore his trial with great dignity, cast no blame on any colleagues, and on return to ordinary life retired to his residence in South Wales.

On his return to Coomb he was given a warm welcome and his car was drawn by 40 men at a running pace for about a quarter of a mile to the entrance of the house, and passed under an arch of laurel and evergreen which had been built over the gates.

All who knew him acquitted him of any desire to act criminally, and they laid the responsibility on the assumption of duties beyond the power of any individual to bear and on a certain financial recklessness and a belief in the future which events showed was unjustified.