Four men and a company have been prosecuted for making and receiving bribes to win construction contracts as part of multi-billion Crossrail project.

Alandale Rail Ltd, part of the Alandale Group, was convicted of corruption and fined £25,000.

It is understood Kevin McKee and John Zayya of Alandale Rail made corrupt payments and promised rewards to Innocent Obiekwe to secure a contract to supply safety critical staff as part of the Crossrail scheme.

In return, Mr Obiekwe (a senior manager at a joint venture Costain and Laing O'Rourke, CoLOR) provided confidential information during the tender process.

After securing the Farringdon contract by corruption. McKee, Zayya and Obiekwe defrauded CoLOR by claiming for 'ghost-worker' shifts. Payments were then split amongst the men, with the majority going to Obiekwe.


When this practice was uncovered, Zayya continued to send money to Obiekwe by using William Waring. Zayya skimmed from the operatives' rates of pay and used Waring and his company, Qualitas, to pay the cash to Obiekwe.

An investigation was launched after McKee told CoLOR and Transport for London of their dishonest practices.

Kevin McKee, who pleaded guilty in September 2016, was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment and disqualified from being a director for eight years.

Innocent Obiekwe pleaded guilty to corruption. He was sentenced to two years in prison and disqualified from being a director for eight years. John Zayya, who also pleaded guilty to corruption, was sentenced to two years in prison and disqualified from being a director for eight years.

William Waring pleaded guilty at trial to corruption and money laundering. He was sentenced to two years in prison and disqualified from being a director for eight years.

Jane Mitchell from the CPS Specialist Fraud Division said: "McKee, Zayya and Obiekwe cheated their way to a significant contract and their level of ongoing dishonesty was uncovered only when one of their own came forward.

"The defendants could not hide from the overwhelming evidence put forward by the British Transport Police and CPS and all pleaded guilty, apart from the company that was found guilty unanimously by the jury."

(LM/MH)