Three site managers from construction engineering firm Keltbray could face jail after being convicted of taking more than £600,000 in kickbacks.
Arben Hysa, 56, bribed the Keltbray workers to secure contracts worth more than £15m through his company Tony Demolition Workers Ltd.
Tony Demolitions Ltd (TDW) invoiced Keltbray for more than £15m from November 2013 to June 2018 as one of its outside agencies to source workers.
But TDW allegedly made secret payments to the site managers during the process of choosing and keeping workers, the court heard.
Hysa admitted to receiving a 10-15 per cent cut of what his TDW workers were paid by Keltbray.
He denied but was convicted of three counts of bribery, but was acquitted of a further three counts at Southwark Crown Court.
Former Keltbray site managers Michael McCarthy, 64, Simon Lacey, 52, and John Burke, 55, denied but were convicted of one count of bribery.
They were cleared of a second charge of bribery.
From February 2013 to June 2018, McCarthy accepted £292,211.72, Burke received £217,160.86, and Lacey £91,521.79, jurors heard.
They were bailed ahead of sentence on 28 April.
Conveyancing solicitor Catherine Williams, 48, was cleared by the jury of money laundering.
Williams had been accused of allowing her Nationwide Building Society account to be used to receive some of the payments for her partner Burke.
Jurors were told that Burke lavished cash on holidays in exotic locations across the world.
Earlier, prosecutor Paul Ozin KC said: “This case concerns the bribery of site managers of Keltbray Ltd, a large construction company, by Arben Hysa, who ran a business called Tony Demolition Workers (TDW).
“TDW supplies specialist demolition staff and also specialist groundwork operatives – it was a number of agencies that provided workers on a subcontractor basis, to meet the additional labour requirements at the Keltbray sites.
“The value of invoices submitted by TDW to Keltbray between November 2013 and June 2018 was in excess of £15m.
“Hysa, through TDW, paid regular sums of money over a number of years to three Keltbray site managers, Michael McCarthy, Simon Lacey and John Burke.
“The sums involved were considerable… those payments went on over a number of years.”
The prosecutor said the explanations given by each defendant for the alleged bribes were either “concessions” or “absurd and incoherent” deflections.
He said one of McCarthy’s explanations was that the payments “related to sums due to two workers and that he had repaid some of that money from cash made in gambling.
“In effect, he said that he was able to keep the balance of the money paid to him by Hysa – circa £275,000 – for other workers because he was able to pay those workers in cash from his fortunate winnings in gambling.”
Ozin said the claims were “irrelevant” and “untrue” as McCarthy had made a “net loss” on his “large-scale gambling”.
Lacey referred to the payments in interview as “drinks money” based on “£10 per day per worker used on the site”, Ozin said.
“He claimed that he told Hysa that he had no control over the allocation of work but that Mr Hysa insisted on paying him just the same.”
The prosecutor referred to this as an “absurd account and one that can be dismissed as untrue”.
He said the defendants willingly and knowingly accepted bribes from the “insatiable monster” Hysa.
Hysa, of Palmers Green, north London, denied six counts of bribery while McCarthy, of Chelmsford, Essex, Lacey, of Erith, south east London, and Burke, of Orpington, Kent, each denied two bribery charges.
Williams, also of Orpington, denied money laundering.
Andrew Cant from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Corruption in the construction industry distorts competition between companies and makes the UK a less attractive marketplace for domestic and foreign investors.
“McCarthy, Lacey and Burke ignored the rules so that Hysa’s specialist staff agency were favoured on labour contracts and their workers were retained on projects for as long as possible.
“In return, Hysa handed over more than £600,000 in payments.
“The CPS will now commence confiscation proceedings in order to reclaim the ill-gotten gains of the defendants’ crimes.”
Keltbray’s high-profile projects include the HS2 rail link, the redevelopment of Battersea power station, the redesign of Bridlington sea front and dozens of office buildings in the City of London.
