Braid Group pays £2m bribery penalty
A Glasgow-based logistics firm has agreed to pay £2.2m to the Crown after it uncovered illegal bribery operations in its own organisation.
Braid Logistics said it had "discovered potentially dishonest activities" connected to two freight-forwarding contracts in 2012.
An investigation revealed breaches of the Bribery Act 2010, which forbids bribes being paid to gain business.
Braid sacked those involved and self-reported the case to the Crown Office.
Alasdair Davidson, group financial director at Braid Logistics, said: "The activities uncovered in this case were the unauthorised actions of a small number of individuals who are no longer employed by the company.
"Braid UK's rapid and thorough response to these pursuits and the wholesale changes we have now made in our company's systems led to our case being conducted on civil grounds.
"During this process we have worked closely with the (Crown Office) Civil Recovery Unit which has commended Braid UK for its cooperation in self-reporting."
Braid's investigation found that one of its staff had set up an account which was used by an employee of a customer to buy holidays, hotels and cash.
In the second case, a profit-sharing arrangement was set up which rewarded the director of a company for placing orders with Braid.
Mr Davidson said the matter was now closed and Braid had demonstrated that it had "a zero tolerance policy towards breach of anti-bribery legislation and any other company laws".
"The payment of this fine now draws a line under the civil case," he said.
"I would like to assure our customers that we now have emerged stronger from this incident with more robust processes and procedures in place throughout the group.
"We are now on a solid financial footing and in a strong position to meet our worldwide growth plans going forward."