A man has been jailed for two and a half years after pleading guilty to three counts of conspiracy to corrupt in a case involving contracts worth £40 million.

Graham Marchment, 57, originally from West Sussex but recently a resident in the Philippines, pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court following a joint investigation by the Serious Fraud Organisation (SFO) and City of London Police into the awarding of contracts in a series of high-value infrastructure projects.

These contracts were said to be worth around £40 million and were located in the Western Desert, Egypt, Sakhalin Island in Russia, and Singapore.

The investigation found that Marchment worked as a procurement engineer and deliberately leaked confidential information to bidders concerning oil and gas engineering projects in these countries in exchange for payments disguised as commission.

Four co-conspirators had already been convicted in January 2012 as part of the same case but Marchment refused to return to the UK from the Philippines for the trial.  

In a turn of events, Marchment’s passport expired and, unable to renew it due to the outstanding arrest warrant, he returned to the UK in December 2014, was promptly arrested, charged then denied bail.

In passing sentence, HHJ Taylor stated: "You [Marchment] with your experience knew that the information you were passing was confidential and would be useful to rival bidders… You were in a position of trust … [yet] were motivated by greed."

Meanwhile, Joint Head of Bribery at the SFO, Matthew Wagstaff, said this conviction had brought to an end a seven-year investigation covering a number of foreign jurisdictions.

“Collaboration with national and international agencies enabled the SFO to secure Marchment's conviction, despite his attempts to evade justice for this greedy and parasitic crime,” said Matthew.

“Special thanks go to City of London Police, who referred the case to the SFO and with whom we worked closely throughout the investigation."