Ex-Mod official accepted secret payments while working on Saudi Arabian project

A former Ministry of Defence official has been jailed after taking £70,000 worth of secret payments and gifts while working on a Saudi Arabian project.

Jeffrey Cook, 67, received cash payments and cars while employed at the Government department, where he was seconded to a defence contractor called Paradigm.

At the time of the offence, MoD rules banned employees from accepting external paid employment, Southwark Crown Court was told today.

Cook was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment and handed a confiscation order to pay £123,813 within three months after previously being found guilty of misconduct in a public office.

The court heard that Cook was in charge of his department’s finances and committed misconduct in a public office by using his position to commission reports from offshore consultants between 2004 and 2008.

He commissioned ME Consultants Limited, within which he had personal contacts, to create reports for the MoD between 2005 and 2006.

The Serious Fraud Office said the reports were on the MoD’s Sangcom project, which provided military communications equipment to the Saudi Arabian National Guard.

‘Personal gain at the expense of the public purse’

A total of £702,800 was sent from the MoD to ME Consultants’ Swiss bank account for the reports, the court was told.

Over approximately 18 months between early 2006 and mid-2007, Cook received around £70,000 in return, the court was told.

He received the money in multiple forms including cars and a series of cash payments to his and his wife’s Barclays bank account.

Within that period, Cook, who started working for the MoD in 1975, also received two cars worth a total of £32,906.

Sentencing him, Mr Justice Simon Picken said that Cook “augmented” his profit by not declaring the money to HMRC and avoiding tax.

Overall he received 10 per cent of the money made by ME Consultants, the judge said.

He added: “You made a personal gain at the expense of the public purse, receiving money that could otherwise have been used for the public in relation to the Sangcom project or otherwise.”

In mitigation, defence barrister Tom Allen KC said: “These are dramatically old offences that are now standing to be dealt with.”

‘Sufficiently unusual’ offence

He told the court that Cook, who listened to the proceedings through a hearing aid, had suffered a stroke, heart failure and diabetes during the 12-year period that has passed since investigations were launched.

Cook, from Ceredigion, Wales, was first interviewed by police in 2014.

“There has to be some understanding by the court of the immense impact that the 12 years of being under suspicion, and then prosecution, has had on Mr Cook, his family life and his wife,” Mr Allen said.

He argued a suspended sentence would be appropriate because “the antiquity” of the offence was “sufficiently unusual”.

The court heard Cook and his wife have a house in West Wales worth around £500,000 and approximately £145,000 in savings.

Mr Allen said that neither Cook nor his wife are in “great shape” as they approach their 70s, and their priority is to “stay in that house in west Wales and put that money into care”.

In a statement after the hearing, director of the SFO, Nick Ephgrave, said: “I am proud of my team for their determination and tenacity in prosecuting a complex case of corruption involving the defence industry.

“Today’s sentencing demonstrates the Serious Fraud Office’s ability to hold individuals to account, particularly when their actions undermine trust in our institutions.”