He was married in 1963 to Carole Ann Stephings with two sons and one daughter, and was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
He had a career in management with Beecham, Great Universal Stores and Nestle before becoming Chief Executive of Guinness plc (1981-1986).
Saunders (along with Isidore Jack Lyons, Anthony Keith Parnes and Gerald Maurice Ronson) was convicted on August 27, 1990 of counts of conspiracy to contravene section 13(1)(a)(i) of the Prevention of Fraud (Investments) Act 1958, false accounting and theft, in relation to dishonest conduct in a share support operation during Guinness plc's takeover bid for United Distillers plc early in 1986. A series of appeals were finally dismissed in December 2002.
Saunders is notorious for having been released from open prison after serving 10 months of a five year sentence, which had been halved on appeal. The reasons for release included medical opinions that he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, which is incurable. After release, he recovered from the symptoms which led to this diagnosis. His spokesmen said that they believed his illness to have been stress related, but many in the British press assumed (and reported) that he had successfully performed another fraud.
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