A greedy Sainsbury's potato buyer, lavished with cash and luxury hospitality totalling £4.9m in return for corruptly granting a multi-million pound contract, was jailed for four years today along with two executives.
Buyer John Maylam, 45, (pic.top) ran up a £200,000 bill at London's Claridge's Hotel; enjoyed a luxury £350,000 twelve-day fortieth birthday holiday to the Monaco Grand Prix; a £93,000 "shiny, black" Aston Martin car and received cash payments totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds stuffed inside brown envelopes.
He guaranteed the lucrative contract with Greenvale AP, whose account manager David Baxter, 50, (pic.mid.) received two-and-a-half years and finance director Andrew Behagg, 60, (pic.bottom) three years.
Maylam, of Blakeney Close, Bearstead, Maidstone pleaded guilty to corruption between January 1, 2006 and January 1, 2008 by accepting gifts from the Greenvale AP directors and acquiring criminal property, namely £1,158m held in a Luxembourg bank account.
Baxter, of Holly House, Chester Road, Hinstock, Market Drayton 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.
Behagg, of London Road, Cambridge, denied, but was convicted of corruption, claiming he was the victim of "extortion" by Maylam.
"There will be many who find the details of this extravagance fascinating and some who may find it entertaining," Croydon Crown Court Judge Nicholas Ainley told the defendants. "Put simply this is bribery and corruption, also corruption involving theft on a huge scale.
"Greenvale wanted to keep the contract……worth forty million pounds and offered Maylam all the lavish entertainment he wanted, over one million pounds of it, in order to save the business.
"It was theft because it was not Greenvale paying the bribe, Sainsbury's were. Sainsbury's' corrupt employee Maylam was allowing himself to be bribed with his own employers money.
"All three of you knew it and all three of you approved it.
"As far as Maylam and Baxter were concerned it was a till to be rifled and Behagg signed-off ludicrous expenses claims, knowing his company would not be paying the money, but Sainsbury's would."
The judge told Maylam: "You abused that trust so you could lead the life of a rich man and what started off as a generous requirement of expenses ended up as utter abuse."
Baxter, who developed liver cirrhosis because he was drinking so much champagne and fine wine, was told: "You also took the opportunity to lead the life of a rich man as someone else's expense. You gave Maylam everything he asked for."
Judge Ainley told Behagg: "You knew Sainsbury's were the victims of theft on a vast scale, yet you signed-off all these invoices."
Maylam's lawyer Mr. Nicholas Walker told the court: "The public will view the spending and consumption out of touch and excessive to the point of vulgarity."
The on-time "uber-performer" claims family and friends have "dropped him like a brick" and Mr. Walker added: "He knows that he faces ruin. Financial ruin."
"What this case concerns is corruption on a massive scale through the payments of excessive gifts and hospitality," said prosecutor Mr. Paul Ozin. "As a result of the corruption Greenvale gained the benefit of keeping Sainsbury's' valuable business and overcharging Sainsbury's for potatoes."
The £40m contract was ratified by Maylam and Greenvale poured £8.7m of Sainsbury's money into an account nicknamed 'The Fund' - paying Maylam and his associates £4.9m and keeping the remainder for themselves.
"Mr. Maylam was corrupted with wholly excessive gifts and hospitality to show favour to Greenvale and work against the interests of his own employers," explained Mr. Ozin. "The hospitality ran into many hundreds of thousands of pounds.
"Firstly they reimbursed Mr. Maylam's own extravagant expenses after he entertained himself at luxury restaurants and hotels, paying his bills at luxury london hotel's, including Claridge's, which came to two hundred thousand pounds.
"Not only was he staying at the hotel, but he was using it as a bank and withdrawing thousands of pounds.
"There were further payments for luxury holidays abroad and very, very lavish corporate entertainment."
Maylam received £85,000 for an unnecessary consultancy report; money was funnelled into John Maylam Potato Consultants; he and Baxter consumed "dozens and dozens" of bottles of expensive vintage Dom Perignon champagne at Claridge's - often followed by a fine claret.
Baxter also enjoyed an all-expenses Antigua trip - financed by 'The Fund' - received an £85,000 BMW M5 from Maylam and spent a total of 77 nights at Claridge's.
Maylam's bill for a presidential suite during the GP was £48,000 alone and receipts proved a £200 bottle of Dom Perignon was bought for him at the five-star Mandarin Hotel, Knightsbridge shortly before an £843 sushi meal.
He was also entertained at the luxury Blue Palace Resort & Spa, Crete, where Greenvale ensured there was a bottle of chilled Veuve Clicquot champagne on his arrival, plus a bouquet of freshly-cut flowers and strawberries and cream.
Sainsbury's own code of conduct demands all hospitality gifts must be placed in a charity raffle and failure to do so may result in misconduct proceedings and dismissal.
"Further money was syphoned off by Mr. Maylam by using bogus businesses pretending to be something else and became another way of taking lot's of money," added the prosecutor.
"One and a half million pounds was paid to Mr. Maylam through third parties and a bank account in Luxembourg. The payments were made on the bogus basis they were for potato research or storage of potatoes in Spain.
"A peculiar feature of the corruption was that it was self-funding. Greenvale were not paying for it, Sainsbury's were paying for the corruption of their own buyer and this was achieved by overcharging Sainsbury's."
Baxter was based at offices in Tern Hill, Warrant Road, Stoke Heath and gave evidence against Behagg, who worked from Harvest House, Bridge Street, Chatteris. "Mr. Baxter paints a picture of corruption that goes to the very heart of Greenvale. To the senior management," said Mr. Ozin.
Baxter claims Maylam had an arrangement with the company's chief executive officer from June, 2005 to receive secret cash reimbursements for his expenses.
"Mr. Maylam sent his receipts in envelopes to Mr. Baxter's home address to avoid Greenvale scrutiny and he then took them to Mr. Behagg. Mr. Baxter would then deliver the cash in a brown envelope to Mr. Maylam.
"Mr Baxter says 'The Fund' was discussed in senior management meetings that were attended by Mr. Behagg, who explained to the others what went through the books.
"Mr. Maylam then made it clear he wanted more and was told the payment could be for a consultancy report, which was suggested by Mr. Behagg. This resulted in a payment of eighty-five thousand pounds."
Sainsbury's also ended up paying more for Greenvale's potatoes than agreed.
"What happened under Sainsbury's radar was that Mr. Maylam was agreeing to massive increases in the price of potatoes. The prices were much too high.
"One technique was to add on one pound to a crate and with the volume we are talking about it soon adds up," said Mr. Ozin. "They also supplied smaller packs for the same price and there were illogical prices for new packs."
A financial investigation into the defendants assets will follow.
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