TIMES.KY

Cayman Islands, Caribbeanand International News
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Coca-Cola Enterprises boss admits taking £1.5m in bribes

Coca-Cola Enterprises boss admits taking £1.5m in bribes

A former Coca-Cola Enterprises manager has admitted taking more than £1.5m in bribes in exchange for helping favoured companies win lucrative contracts.

Noel Corry, 56, provided Boulting Group, Tritec Systems, and Electron Systems with confidential and sensitive data from 2004 to 2013.

It gave them an advantage over rivals in contract bids.

Corry, of Lymm, Cheshire, was given a 20-month suspended sentence and the companies involved were fined.

A former director of Tritec Systems, Gary Haines, 60, of Market Drayton, Shropshire, was also given a 20-month suspended sentence and a former contract manager at Boulting, Peter Kinsella, 58, of Manchester, was given a 12-month suspended sentence at Southwark Crown Court.

All three were ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.

'Bogus contracts'


Boulting Group - now named WABGS Ltd - was fined £500,000, while the other two companies were made to pay £70,000, for failing to prevent bribery.

Corry, a senior engineering manager responsible for identifying electrical services contractors for bottling plants in the UK, was forced to sell his family home and hand over his pension pot to repay Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd £1.7m when his nine-year scam was discovered, the court heard.

Prosecutors said Corry received payments for "bogus" contracts for Coca-Cola Enterprises, for work never carried out, or had the firm pay more than the real price for the work and was sent the difference.

Corry received at least £950,000 from Boulting, which was said to have benefited by £13m, while Tritec Systems and Electron Systems paid more than £600,000 in bribes by the time he was discovered and sacked.

The court heard the bribes to Corry came from a shell company he controlled through family members, Trojan Ltd, Alpha Windows - owned by his brother-in-law - or Axial Partnership Ltd, where he was a partner.

Corry also received hundreds of thousands of pounds as sponsorship or through other payments to Droylsden FC, a football club where he was president.

'Corrupt'


He also arranged expensive entertainment events through corporate events company Sports Management UK Ltd, including one payment of more than £11,000 for Manchester United season tickets paid for by companies he favoured.

Corry admitted five counts of corruption, Haines admitted two counts while Kinsella admitted three counts of corruption and three counts of conspiracy to bribe.

WABGS admitted failure to prevent bribery. Tritec Systems and Electron Systems pleaded guilty to corruption and failure to prevent bribery.

Alistair Dickson of the CPS said Corry established a "corrupt procurement culture" awarding contracts to companies whose senior managers were prepared to bribe him.

He said Coca Cola Enterprises were "wholly unaware" of Corry's corruption but added: "The contracting companies should have had in place compliance measures which would have prevented the payments."

Det Supt John Roch, of the Metropolitan Police, said: "Corry, Haines and Kinsella worked hard to present themselves as reputable, reliable and genuine businessmen."

He added: "This is the first time the Met has charged and convicted a company with failure to prevent bribery."

Newsletter

Related Articles

TIMES.KY
0:00
0:00
Close
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Israel: Unprecedented Civil Disobedience Looms as IDF Reservists Protest Judiciary Reform
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
Europe is boiling: Extreme Weather Conditions Prevail Across the Continent
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Italian Court's Controversial Ruling on Sexual Harassment Ignites Uproar
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
BBC Personalities Rebuke Accusations Amidst Scandal Involving Teen Exploitation
A Swift Disappointment: Why Is Taylor Swift Bypassing Canada on Her Global Tour?
Historic Moment: Edgars Rinkevics, EU's First Openly Gay Head of State, Takes Office as Latvia's President
Bye bye democracy, human rights, freedom: French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
Unilever Plummets in a $2.5 Billion Free Fall, to begin with: A Reckoning for Misuse of Corporate Power Against National Interest
Beyond the Blame Game: The Need for Nuanced Perspectives on America's Complex Reality
Twitter Targets Meta: A Tangle of Trade Secrets and Copycat Culture
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
The New French Revolution
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
×