A GLASGOW-BASED company has reached a £2m settlement with the Crown Office after it self-reported incidents of bribery within its ranks.

Braid Logistics (UK), part of the global Braid Group, said the case involved a small number of ex-employees and an employee of a client company.

In a civil settlement with the Crown Office, the company agreed to pay £2.2million after accepting it had obtained business through unlawful conduct.

The settlement comes after the company, which specialises in freight and logistics, discovered potentially dishonest activities in relation to two freight forwarding contracts in 2012.

When this was brought to the attention of the company's board, it began an internal investigation which revealed breaches of the Bribery Act 2010.

The first incident was an agreement made between a Braid UK employee and the employee of a customer.

This involved an account which was used to pay unauthorised expenses incurred by the customer's employee, which were funded by the dishonest inflation of invoices provided to the customer. These expenses included personal travel, holidays, gifts, hotels, car hire and cash.

A second bribery offence was also discovered by the first investigation and relates to a profit sharing arrangement with the director of a customer company.

Braid UK terminated the employment of those involved and voluntarily made a self-report to the Crown Office, accepting that it had failed in its responsibility to prevent the incidents happening.

Its reaction and cooperation with Crown Office meant the case was referred to the Civil Recovery Unit where it was dealt with on a civil rather than criminal basis, with the settlement based on the gross profit made in relation to the contracts.

The company also said it had made an number of infrastructure changes, including establishing a new management team and structure in the UK.

Employees will now undergo anti-bribery training and the company has implemented tighter policies involving client gifts, entertainment and expenses.

Linda Hamilton, Head of the Civil Recovery Unit, said: "It is vital to the health of the Scottish economy that any form of bribery or corruption is identified and stopped as soon as possible.

"Only in this way, can businesses who play by the rules flourish, without competing with those who obtain commercial advantage through unlawful means.

"Braid is to be commended for self-reporting the unlawful conduct to Crown Office."

The Crown Office said that it was not possible to give any further details of the corrupt payments in case of any resulting criminal investigations of individuals involved, which would be distinct from the company's civil settlement.

It also said the funds raised from the settlement would go towards community projects across Scotland.

Alasdair Davidson, Group Financial Director of Braid UK 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.

"The payment of this fine now draws a line under the civil case. 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."

"As we have demonstrated from our own investigations and in self-reporting these activities to the Crown Prosecution Service, we have a zero tolerance policy towards breach of anti-bribery legislation and any other company laws across the entire Braid Group."

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