Four people, including three former Keltbray site managers, have been jailed for bribery in relation to the awarding of demolition contracts.
Arben Hysa, 56, was found guilty in February of bribing the Keltbray workers to secure contracts worth more than £15m through his company Tony Demolition Workers Ltd.
He was sentenced yesterday (28 April) at Southwark Crown Court to three-and-a-half years imprisonment, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a statement yesterday.
The same sentence was handed down to 64-year-old former Keltbray site manager Michael McCarthy, who was convicted in February on one count of bribery, according to the statement.
Fellow ex-Keltbray site manager John Burke, 56, was also given a three-and-a-half year sentence after being found guilty on one count of bribery, the CPS said.
It added that another ex-Keltbray site manager, 53-year-old Simon Lacey, received a two-year sentence following his conviction on one count of bribery.
The bribes totalled more than £600,000 between 2012 and 2018, according to the CPS.
From February 2013 to June 2018, McCarthy accepted £292,211.72, Burke received £217,160.86, and Lacey £91,521.79, jurors at the trial were told.
Burke spent cash on holidays in exotic locations across the world, they heard.
Andrew Cant, a specialist prosecutor in the CPS’s Serious Economic, Organised Crime and International Directorate, said: “Corruption in the construction industry distorts competition between companies and makes the UK a less attractive marketplace for domestic and foreign investors.
“McCarthy, Lacey and Burke ignored the rules in respect of their obligation to act in the interests of their employer Keltbray when dealing with external contractors by accepting significant sums of money from Arben Hysa.”
He added that the CPS will now commence confiscation proceedings in order to reclaim the “ill-gotten gains of the defendants’ crimes”.