 Barber which he maintained he provided to an intermediary as a brokerage fee for successfully resolving the deadlock between the CWS and Hobson in negotiations about extending a food supply contract; the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) maintained that the transfer was used by the intermediary to provide a bribe to two senior CWS executives in order to extend the contract, and unsuccessfully prosecuted Regan on a charge of theft of £2.4 million.Regan's first trial resulted, in 2002, in a hung jury and a retrial was ordered.This retrial in 2003, ended when a juror alleged he was approached by an unknown party.