A senior Sainsbury's buyer, who accepted bribes totalling £4.9m in cash and lavish hospitality, told bosses he had only received two modest lunches from potato supplier Greenvale AP - who he recommended for a £40m annual contract.
John Maylam, 44, who joined the retail giants as a teenager and earned £64,000 a year - a buyer's top pay grade - plus a £15,000 bonus, told Sainsbury's nothing about luxury stays at Claridge's hotel or twelve-day trips to the Monaco Grand Prix, financed by Greenvale.
"He would have had a significant influence and would have conducted a review of potential suppliers and come back to Sainsbury's with a recommendation," Maylam's immediate boss Conor McVeigh told Croydon Crown Court today where a Greenvale director denies corruption.
After the lucrative contract was agreed Maylam secretly rubber-stamped higher payments to Greenvale, without Sainsbury's knowledge. "There were no grounds under which prices should have varied," added Mr. McVeigh.
"The prices paid to Greenvale should have been comparable with other suppliers, but I found a number of instances where this was not the case. The prices paid to Greenvale were significantly higher."
Maylam, (pic.top) of Bearstead, Maidstone has pleaded guilty to corruption between January 1, 2006 and January 1, 2008 by accepting gifts from Greenvale AP and acquiring criminal property, namely £1,158m held in a Luxembourg bank account.
Greenvale's account manager, David Baxter, 50, (pic.mid.) of Hinstock, Market Drayton has pleaded guilty to corruptly giving Maylam gifts and consideration between the same dates and acquiring criminal property, namely goods, services and cash between June 1 and July 1, 2007.
Both men will be sentenced after the trial of Greenvale finance director Andrew Behagg, 60, (pic.bottom) of London Road, Cambridge, who denies corruption and told police he was the victim of "extortion" by Maylam.
Sainsbury's also felt they were not receiving value for money from Maylam himself while he was secretly paid millions by Greenvale.
"I began to have concerns in the second half of two thousand and six, initially around attendance in the workplace," said Mr. McVeigh. "I began to record the number of occasions John was not in attendance through sickness and absence and part-day occasions when he would arrive at the office, but was not at his desk for large parts of the day.
"It continued into two thousand and seven and there were concerns about his role of buyer. The concerns about his attendance continued and worsened."
Mr. McVeigh told the court Sainsbury's hospitality police was clear to Maylam. "Hospitality had to be modest, appropriate and more importantly recorded."
A Greenvale accountant also told the jury he found illicit payments to bogus companies under Maylam's control.
Cash was transferred to a Spanish-based company, but accountant Simon Forster said: "I did not believe we stored potatoes in Spain so why would we have an invoice for storing potatoes in Spain?
"The question I asked myself was: 'Does it exist?' and my deduction from what I was seeing was that it did not."
Suspicious payments were also made to a company called Greenwood Storage. "I came to the same conclusion that it probably did not exist."
Further scrutiny revealed another questionable account. "Initially I believed it was in relation to entertaining, but as I looked at it more I found it was in a separate file, not in the main filing system, and by the time the year end was approaching I had the view this activity was not normal and had to cease," added Mr. Forster.
"I took the view the best way forward was to inform the auditors what my fears were at the time."
Trial continues…………
No comments:
Post a Comment