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“These individuals believed corrupt practice was widespread in the construction industry and the method by which business was done”

“When we looked at the evidence, it was quite obvious,” said DI Parkinson. “I think they thought they were never going to get caught.”

How a quiet Devon town ended up at the centre of a multi-million pound criminal conspiracy

Sam Blackledge www.itv.com 

The peaceful, pristine suburban town of Cranbrook in East Devon – with its tree-lined streets and new-build houses – is the last place you would expect to be at the centre of a major criminal conspiracy.

Fifteen years ago, as Cranbrook was being developed and prepared for residents, it needed a district heating system.

Two men – who worked for energy firm E.ON – were in charge of the project, and began handing out lucrative contracts to construction firms. As it turned out, they were accepting millions of pounds in bribes.

Drugs, gambling and climbing the property ladder

Detective Inspector Dan Parkinson, from Devon and Cornwall Police’s serious organised crime branch, told ITV News West Country the investigation – codenamed Operation Truman – was complex and took years to fully unravel.

The pair at the centre of the case, Mark Baker and Matthew Heyward, along with Mr Baker’s wife, Angela, spent four years taking huge bribes through various channels.

They accepted cash and money paid into bank accounts; home improvements were paid for; they had the use of prestige cars, holidays and luxury hotel rooms.

The payments – which came from Priddy Engineering Limited and RK Civil Engineering – were covered up with false references and fake wage slips.

Heyward spent his bribery money on gambling and drugs; the Bakers spent theirs on climbing the property ladder.

The conspiracy came crashing down when E.ON realised what was happening and alerted the police.

On Thursday, at Winchester Crown Court, the six were sentenced for offences including fraud, bribery and money laundering.

‘They thought they were never going to get caught’

“When we looked at the evidence, it was quite obvious,” said DI Parkinson. “I think they thought they were never going to get caught.

“It can be incredibly tempting as a business to pay a bribe to get a contract. But if you do it, you are committing an offence and perpetuating this situation.

“The contracts were extremely large, and the amount in bribery totalled about £2 million. That’s the scale we’re looking at.

“At the heart of it, this is about employees of E.ON – who should have been acting in the best interests of the company – taking bribes and backhanders and putting contractors in place who would pay those.”

Corrupt relationships

Back in 2010, Cranbrook – six miles outside Exeter – was being developed as a new town.

Mark Baker was appointed head of projects and tasked with delivering the district heating project for E.ON, with Matthew Heyward employed as a quantity surveyor, responsible for signing off the work.

Priddy Engineering Ltd was controlled by Andrew Blunsdon, who paid bribes to both Baker and Heyward.

RK Civil Engineering Ltd (RKC) was run by Richard King and Timothy Patterson. Bank accounts linked to the two paid more than £1.5million to Baker and Heyward.

These companies were construction contractors who either had or wanted a commercial relationship with E.ON.

Police said Mark Baker’s role was deciding which companies should be given valuable construction contracts at Cranbrook, and later at other locations around the UK.

The bribes started in 2011 and continued through until the end of 2015.

‘It undermines how business works’

“When you talk about bribery, people think it’s just one person paying a bribe to get a contract,” DI Parkinson said.

“In this case, the employees at E.ON were putting in particular contractors who they knew would pay them bribes, and allowing them to put in inflated invoices, so the money they were getting actually came from E.ON.”

DI Parkinson says there are many more victims in this case.

“There were lots of other businesses who were bidding for work, but in hindsight they were never going to get that work, because they were not part of this corrupt relationship,” he said.

“It undermines how business operates and has a wider impact.”

Fake references, false invoices and wage slips and multiple house moves

Police say between 2011 and 2014, Mark and Angela Baker moved house four times, with each of the moves “tainted by fraud”.

In 2012 they moved from Lincolnshire to Devon to be closer to the site in Cranbrook.

In their rental application they falsely declared that Angela Baker worked for RKC on an annual salary of £60,000. Timothy Paterson enabled this fraud by creating a reference and fake wage slips.

In 2013 the Bakers started the process of buying a house with a mortgage in Okehampton.

RKC paid the deposit and obtained the mortgage by fraud, and paid for improvements to the home.

Angela Baker told the bank she was working for RKC on a salary of £85,000 per year, with fake wage slips again created to disguise the fraud.

After spending some of the money on a car and holidays, the Bakers bought a house in Yorkshire in late 2013.

Angela Baker again claimed to the mortgage lender to be a RKC employee earning £84,000 a year, using a fake wage slip.

‘A parasitic blight on society’

In the summer of 2012, after the Bakers had moved to Devon, Andrew Blunsdon further bribed Mark Baker by arranging and paying for an air conditioning unit to be installed in his wife’s florist shop.

DI Parkinson said: “These individuals believed corrupt practice was widespread in the construction industry and the method by which business was done.

“Corruption costs business and society, providing benefit for just a corrupt few. Ultimately, we all pay the price. These corrupt practices are a parasitic blight on society.”

Fraud, money laundering and acquiring criminal property

Mark Baker, 56, of Goole in Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to being bribed, four counts of fraud by false representation, being concerned in a money laundering arrangement and fraud by abuse of position.

He was jailed for three years and 10 months.

Matthew Heyward, 51, of Kingsteignton, Devon, admitted bribery and being concerned in a money laundering arrangement.

He was jailed for two years and six months.

Timothy Patterson, 56, of Derby, admitted two counts of fraud by false representation, two of bribing another person and acquiring criminal property.

He was jailed for four years.

Richard King, 51, of Husbands Bosworth in South Leicestershire, admitted fraud by false representation and two counts of bribing another person.

He was jailed for two years and five months.

Andrew Blunsdon, 57 of Winscombe in Somerset, admitted two counts of bribery.

He was given a 12-month suspended jail term and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.

Angela Baker, 53, also of Goole, pleaded guilty to two fraud by false representation counts and being concerned in a money laundering arrangement.

She was given a sentence of 13 months imprisonment, suspended for two years.

‘Decent companies don’t stand a chance’

The judge at Winchester Crown Court, HHJ Rufus Taylor, said: “If you are a decent honest company, you don’t stand a chance because you haven’t paid a £1.5million bribe.

“This kind of corruption has a chilling effect and seriously undermines the proper operation of business.”

An E.ON UK spokesman said: “Our internal processes enabled us to identify this case and take decisive action. Reflecting our zero-tolerance approach to bribery, we reported the matter to the police and have fully supported their investigation.”