Former commercial directors at G4S have been charged with fraud in connection with the offender tagging scandal.
Mark Preston, former commercial director, and James Jardine, former finance manager and acting commercial director, both at G4S’s Care and Justice Services (G4S C&J) electronic monitoring business, have been charged with seven offences of fraud. Former managing director of G4S C&J Richard Morris has also been charged with seven offences.
The offences are “in connection to false representations made to the MoJ [Ministry of Justice] between 2009 and 2012”, said the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
The SFO referred to a “multi-year scheme to defraud the Ministry of Justice”.
The trio appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 8 September and are due to appear at Southwark Crown Court on 6 October.
In July a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) was approved between the SFO and G4S over the tagging scandal.
Under the DPA G4S accepted responsibility for three offences of fraud and must pay a penalty of £38.5m and the SFO’s costs of £6m. Compensation has already been paid to the MoJ under a £121.3m civil settlement in 2014.
Morris’s solicitor, Ross Dixon, partner at Hickman & Rose, told the BBC: “Mr Morris refutes these allegations in the strongest possible terms. He will robustly contest the charges and is confident he will be cleared of any wrongdoing.”
The legal firms representing Preston and Jardine declined to comment.
A spokesman for G4S said: “It is not appropriate for us to comment on the individual cases.”
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