Four men have been jailed for their parts in an operation to make and receive payments in order to win contracts on the Farringdon station project.
Innocent Obiekwe, a senior health and safety manager at Costain/Laing O’Rourke joint venture CoLOR, alongside Kevin McKee and John Zayya of Alandale Rail, and William Waring of Qualitas, were handed jail sentences on Friday after pleading guilty to corruption at Blackfriars Crown Court.
Rail contractor Alandale Rail was also convicted of corruption and fined £25,000.
Obiekwe was responsible for ensuring the health and safety procedures on the upgrade of Farringdon as part of Network Rail’s multi-billion pound Thameslink project.
Kevin McKee and John Zayya made corrupt payments and promised rewards to Innocent Obiekwe so they could secure the contract to supply safety-critical staff.
In return Obiekwe, nick-named by the co-conspirators as “our man in Havana”, provided confidential information during the tender process.
After Alandale Rail won the Farringdon contract by corruption, McKee, Zayya and Obiekwe defrauded CoLOR by claiming for so-called “ghost worker” shifts (non-existent shifts).
The proceeds of this fraud was shared among them, with the lion’s share going to Obiekwe.
When this practice was uncovered Zayya continued to send money to Obiekwe by using William Waring. Zayya skimmed from the operatives’ rates of pay and used Waring and his company, Qualitas, to pay the cash to Obiekwe.
Their operation came to light after McKee told CoLOR and Transport for London of their dishonest practices, sparking an investigation.
Jane Mitchell from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McKee, Zayya and Obiekwe cheated their way to a significant contract and their level of ongoing dishonesty was uncovered only when one of their own came forward.
“The defendants could not hide from the overwhelming evidence put forward by the British Transport Police and CPS and all pleaded guilty, apart from the company that was found guilty unanimously by the jury.”
