No further action will be taken against three men linked to a major corporate fraud probe at Dundee City Council, the procurator fiscal has said.
The Courier revealed in 2019 that the authority’s head of construction, Mark Ross, had quit in the midst of an investigation into a golf trip to the Spanish coast.
The so-called “customer event” was organised by Edmundson Electrical just weeks after the firm began supplying heat and smoke alarms to the local authority.
A series of investigations established that the lucrative deal was subcontracted to Edmundson by Construction Services, without ever being put out to tender.
It meant no other company was able to bid for the work or see if they could do the job at a lower cost to city taxpayers.
A second employee on the trip, Kenny Muir, was sacked after being hauled before bosses on a number of misconduct charges.
We revealed in November last year, two years after publishing the findings of our initial investigation, that the pair had been reported to procurator fiscal along with Edmundson’s employee Kevin McIntyre.
Mr McIntyre was the Profit Centre Manager in Dundee and was involved in arranging the trip. He has since taken up a new role with the company in Glasgow.
Fourth man charged over theft
Meanwhile, another employee in the troubled department, electrical supervisor Iain Gardyne, narrowly avoided a jail term after we separately exposed him for selling council-owned smoke alarms and sensors on eBay.
Mr Gardyne, who spent nearly four years helping himself to the alarms in a bid to help pay off £65,000 of gambling debts, was sentenced to eight months on an electronic tag.
However, we can reveal the procurator fiscal has decided to take no further action against Mr Ross, Mr Muir and Mr McIntyre.
A spokesman said: “The procurator fiscal received a report relating to 31, 47 and 53 year old males, in relation to conduct that took place between January 2018 and May 2019.
“After careful consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case, including the available admissible evidence, the procurator fiscal decided that there should be no proceedings taken at this time.
“The Crown reserves the right to proceed in the future should further evidence become available.”
Dundee City Council tight-lipped as fraud probe stalls
Investigations into Construction Services were stalled by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The department has more than 300 employees carrying out repairs and refurbishments on housing accommodation and public buildings run by the council.
It is understood a number of other Construction Services staff have also been the subject of inquiries by officials.
Dundee City Council initially refused to turn over its gift and hospitality register, which lists items given to employees by private firms.
However, after it was released to us under Freedom of Information legislation, it emerged the trip was never declared.
The register’s guidance note states staff must not accept any gifts or hospitality from a supplier or contractor.
It also says any offers of hospitality “may not be accepted unless with the prior approval of the chief executive, who will also determine whether it should be declared”.
A paper prepared for the council’s scrutiny committee in September last year revealed that Construction Services faced 15 whistleblowing complaints in 2019/20.
Council refuses to answer questions
Dundee City Council repeatedly refused to make a detailed statement on the case while a police investigation was ongoing.
We asked the authority on Tuesday what steps it is taking in relation to the contract awarded to Edmundson Electrical and what has been done to ensure a similar situation cannot happen again.
We also asked whether the council has investigated how much – if any – public cash was wasted on the Edmundson deal, when a report will be handed to councillors and if this will be made publicly available.
A Dundee City Council spokesman would only say: “A full report will be made available to elected members in due course.”
Kenny Muir and Kevin McIntyre could not be reached for comment.
Mark Ross was also approached.
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