A BUILDER was paid more than £7,000 for jobs he did not complete at a Whittlesey factory in exchange for carrying out free work at the plant manager's house.
A court heard it was part of a corrupt business relationship in which Roger Stevens (63) who lived at The Fenman pub in Whittlesey Road and was manager of the waste water treatment plant at the McCain food factory in Whittlesey, paid Malcolm Clifford
(57), of Downham Market, near King's Lynn, for construction jobs he did not do, as well as over paying the contractor.
The total amount of money paid to Clifford that he should not have received added up to £7,177, and a large amount of work had been carried out for free at Stevens' house.
Stevens had worked at the factory for 30 years, and on Friday, Peterborough Crown Court heard that he was in charge of an annual budget of £180,000.
Duncan O'Donnell, prosecuting, said: "There were no systems to check the authenticity of payments by contractors, until a new plant manager arrived in July 2006.
He said: "He became suspicious of Stevens' accounting, but Stevens claimed that he needed work carried out in the following year, but would not have the budget.
"However, after investigating invoices it became clear that Clifford had been over paid."
"Stevens was then suspended, and told not to contact Clifford – but he quickly made five calls to him to tip him off about the investigation."
Mr O'Donnell told the court that one example of the pair's fraud had been a claim of more than £1,000 for the fitting of wooden boards at the site, when actually the work had cost just £580.
Sentencing the pair, Judge Nicholas Coleman said: "You clearly sought to gorge yourselves on this company.
"This was nothing less than greed, and it is only right to describe your relationship as corrupt.
"Malcolm Clifford, you lined your pockets with money from the company, and Roger Stevens, you benefited from free work at your house."
Both Stevens and Clifford had pleaded guilty to four counts of obtaining money by deception at a previous hearing.
Stevens was ordered to pay £2,965 compensation back to McCain, and both men were ordered to pay a fine of £7,000, costs of £1,100 and ordered to carry out 250 hours of community service.
Both men were also given a 10- month prison sentence for each offence, suspended for 18 months.
Clifford has already paid £4,000 compensation to McCain.
