A McAlpine men suspended for fraud

Two senior managers at Alfred McAlpine's slate subsidiary have been suspended for cooking the books - resulting in a £13m hit in the company's 2006 profit.

There will also be a knock-on effect in 2007, resulting in an estimated £15m hole in the accounts.

McAlpine said it had uncovered "a systematic misrepresentation of production volumes and sales for a number of years".

The falsification dates back to 2003. It is thought that in addition to concocting false invoices, those involved were bringing the volumes of future orders forward and adding them into sales figures.