A COMPANY boss was arrested at his home in Ashton before being convicted of taking more than £1.5 million in bribes.
Noel Corry accepted kickbacks to make sure contracts he was responsible for relating to drinks giant Coca-Cola went to certain companies.
They included Manchester United tickets and sponsorship payments for Droylsden Football Club until he was picked up by police officers in 2013.
London’s Southwark Crown Court heard 56-year-old Corry, who was registered at Companies House at Lily Lanes Farm on Twirl Hill Road, worked as a senior engineering manager for Coca-Cola Enterprises UK Limited (CCE) in the Electrical and Automation division since October 1996, as a senior manager.
He had responsibility for subcontracting site service work at CCE premises to a number of companies.
However, over nine years many contracts went to three firms, with no actual work being done in some cases.
James Mulholland QC, prosecuting, said: “Corry was the creator of the dishonest scheme and was at the heart of the offending” by ensuring that large amounts of work were given to companies including Boulting Group, where he had worked, Tritec Systems and Electron Systems.
“He awarded the deals, ‘in return for large sums of money.’”
The court was told that in 2011, Coca-Cola changed the rules governing the awarding of contracts for large projects and insisted that they were all put to tender from multiple bidders.
Mr Mulholland added Boulting Group was involved in many of the competitions and, ‘Corry was involved with the technical aspects of the tenders and was in a position to steer them towards Boulting.’
Eventually executives suspected that information regarding the tenders was being leaked and told the police, who arrested Corry at his Ashton home.
Officers later found a spreadsheet on his laptop labelled “slush” and detailed Boulting’s income from Coca-Cola and how much was due to Corry.
Between 2008 and 2013 Noel Corry made almost £350,000 from his corrupt relationship with Peter Kinsella and in their guilty plea, the Boulting Group accepted failing to prevent bribery over a two-year period.
Corry also authorised payments for contracts between CCE Ltd, Tritec and Electron for which in fact no work was carried out at all.
Gary Haines was a Director of Tritec from at least June 2011 and held a similar position at Electron from April 2013.
Through this arrangement, Haines hoped to generate further legitimate work with Coca-Cola and he paid bribes to Corry of just over £600,000.
Alistair Dickson, Specialist Prosecutor, of the Crwon Prosecution Service, said: “Corry had established a corrupt culture in the procurement exercise, awarding contracts to those companies whose senior managers were prepared to bribe him for doing so.
“Coca Cola Enterprises were wholly unaware of Corry’s corrupt actions to enrich himself.
“The contracting companies should have had had in place compliance measures which would have prevented the payments being made and led to the corruption being exposed.”
Detective Superintendent John Roch, Head of Economic Crime at the Metropolitan Police added: “Corry, Haines and Kinsella worked hard to present themselves as reputable, reliable and genuine businessmen but in fact they were the exact opposite.
“Corry’s role was one of power; he was the subject matter lead within Coca Cola Enterprises UK and although he did not make the final decision on competitive tenders, his opinion carried considerable influence with both the project managers and procurement team.
“This is the first time the Met has charged and convicted a company with failure to prevent bribery and sends a strong message to individuals out there who seek to create an advantage for their business.
“The Met’s Economic Crime Command investigates serious and complex financial crime, fraud and money laundering. The detectives who worked on this case have distinct areas of expertise and it is with thanks to their hard work and dedication we have achieved today’s result.”
Corry, who is now living in Lymm, Cheshire, pleaded guilty to five charges of corruption and was given a 20-month jail sentence, but that was suspended for 21 months.
Kinsella, 58, of Manchester, the former contract manager at Boulting, was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 21 months, and Haines, 61, of Market Drayton, Shropshire, was sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 21 months.
Tritec and Electron Systems were fined £70,000 each and WABGS, formerly Boulting Group, was fined £500,000.
All three were ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.