Glasgow company agrees £2.2m payment after bribery self-report

A Glasgow-based company has agreed a £2.2m civil settlement with Crown Office's Civil Recovery Unit after self-reporting breaches of the Bribery Act 2010.

Braid Logistics (UK) Ltd (“Braid UK”), which specialises in freight and logistics, committed the offences through agreements with two customers. In the first, a Braid UK employee enabled an account to be used as a means for unauthorised expenses to be incurred by the customer’s employee, funded by the dishonest inflation of invoices provided to the customer. These expenses included personal travel, holidays, gifts, hotels, car hire and cash.

With the second agreement, a profit sharing arrangement with a director of the customer company had been operated, where the profit achieved on services provided to the customer was split, in return for orders continuing to be placed with Braid UK.

After becoming aware of potentially dishonest activities, Braid UK's parent company began an investigation, and then voluntarily made a self-report to Crown Office. It accepted it had failed in its responsibility to prevent the offences, and accepted responsibility for a contravention of ss 1 and 7 of the Bribery Act.

Under the Lord Advocate's self-reporting initiative, the case was deemed suitable for civil recovery settlement based on the gross profit made in relation to the relevant contracts.

The Braid group has taken steps to implement new policies and training throughout all of its companies to prevent a recurrence.

Linda Hamilton, head of the Civil Recovery Unit, commented: “It is vital to the health of the Scottish economy that any form of bribery or corruption is identified and stopped as soon as possible.

“Only in this way, can businesses who play by the rules flourish, without competing with those who obtain commercial advantage through unlawful means.

“Braid is to be commended for self-reporting the unlawful conduct to Crown Office. The money recovered under the self-reporting initiative will be used in community projects across Scotland."