Men jailed over corrupt payments

TWO SHROPSHIRE men involved in a series of corrupt payments that secured around £1.3 million worth of training contracts have been jailed.

Paul Robert Kent, said to be at the hub of the corruption while a director at the Shropshire Learning & Skills Council, was given four-and-half years.

John Stuart Ford, who had paid Kent back-handers to secure contracts worth almost £1 million, was jailed for two years.

At Birmingham Crown Court yesterday Judge Robert Orme told Kent he had destroyed his career, faced a bleak future and had dragged down others with him, including his wife Sarah.

He said Kent had been involved in a breach of trust as an employee of a publicly funded body and had corrupted his co-accused and as a result enjoyed high living.

Kent, 46, admitted 11 charges of receiving a total of £270,000 in corrupt payments while a director of the Shropshire branch of the LSC almost six years ago. And he admitted obtaining the job at the LSC offices in Telford by making false claims about his previous employment.

His 36-year-old wife, formerly Sarah Emberton, admitted a charge of using monies obtained from her husband's criminal activity – including the £40,000 cost of the couple's wedding and honeymoon in July, 2005.

The couple, both of Woodspring Grove, Muxton, Telford, met at the LSC offices in June, 2003, where she was employed as a funding manager. Sarah Kent was warned she faced jail, but Judge Orme adjourned sentence until July.

Ford, 57, formerly of Quarry Place, Shrewsbury, and now of Wheaton Aston, admitted making five corrupt payments to Kent totalling £190,000.

He was manipulated and advised by Kent to inflate tenders to enable him to pay the back-handers for which his IT skills and training businesses were awarded LSC contracts worth £920,000.

Silinder Singh Sidhu, 44, who paid Kent around £80,000 in "bungs", was jailed for three years.

Rebecca Hoyle, 45, of Gloucestershire, admitted making three corrupt payments totalling £29,000 in 2004. She was given a one-year suspended sentence.

Detective Constable Andy Denton, from West Mercia Police's economic crime unit, said: "This was a complex and protracted corruption investigation carried out by West Mercia Police, the Serious Fraud Office and the Skills Funding Agency."

He said police were pleased that some of the "ill gotten gains" could be recovered under confiscation proceedings.

Contracts of £1.3m given to friends

Contracts worth about £1.3 million were awarded to Paul Kent's friends while he was the director of adult learning for the Learning and Skills Council in Shropshire five years ago.

The bulk of the money went to Shrewsbury-based Stuart Ford, who had two training operations – Pitman Training (Telford) It Qualifications and Skills and Shropshire Learning Centres Ltd.

Ford made a series of corrupt payments to Kent to secure contracts valued at £920,000 for training programmes in the Telford and Shrewsbury areas.

Tenders sent to the Learning Skills Council by Ford were deliberately inflated to include the cost of the backhanders Ford was demanding.

Access

Ford was manipulated by Kent who put a former colleague forward as a shareholder in Shropshire Learning Centres Ltd and got her to sign over power of attorney to him which also gave Kent access to the firm's bank accounts.

Between January and April 2005, Ford made five corrupt payments directly to Kent or through Kent's business, Saul Enterprises, in sums of about £60,000, £50,000, £37,000, £30,000 and £14,500.

While the training offered by Ford was completed, he admitted making the corrupt payments to Kent to ensure he got the work.

Ford had previously been tendering for contracts with the LSC, but had been knocked back each time because it was claimed he did not meet the criteria.

But in 2005 Kent stepped in to help and told Ford he could "fix it" for a fee.

Ford accepted he was greedy and been sucked into the plot.

Following his arrest in 2005, Ford, who now lives in Wheaton Aston, Staffordshire, was said to have taken the first opportunity to admit his role to police and Serious Fraud Office investigators. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

The first of the corrupt payments to Paul Kent was made in October 2003 by graphic design technician Rebecca Hoyle, 45, who ran her business, Design Barn, from her then home in Cheltenham.

Traced

She had known Kent when they were at primary school in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. They met up again in May 2003 when she traced old friends on Friends Reunited.

Hoyle said Kent had offered her web design and printing work for the Learning Skills Council and suggested a bill for more than £24,000 – about £6,250 was paid to Kent who provided false invoices from PRK Marketing Consultants for eight days work at £750 a day.

In 2004 she presented two further bills to the LSC – one for £19,000, out of which Kent took £13,000, and another for £14,750 from which Kent demanded £10,000.

Hoyle, now living in Gloucestershire, admitted making the corrupt payments and was sentenced to a 12-month jail sentence suspended for two years.