Scaffolding boss conned MoD out of £425,000

A scaffolding boss scammed £425,000 out of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) by inventing ghost staff he claimed were working on a nuclear submarine project at Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth.

James McLaughlan, 58, of Ayrshire, and three others are due to be sentenced on 29 April for their part in the scam that saw non-existent scaffolders paid a total of £27,000 a week.

Southwark Crown Court heard last week how McLaughlan, of McLaughlan's Scaffolding Limited, created 58 fake staff and inflated the hours of genuine unsuspecting staff between 1 January 2001 and 31 March 2002.

He used a simple clocking-in scam and bribes to defraud the MoD of £424,923 during the upgrade of the nuclear submarine repair and refuelling facility for Royal Navy Trident submarines.

The court heard the con was so blatant that, even when everyone went on strike, many of McLaughlan's staff still put in claims for full shifts.

McLaughlan, his step-daughter Rebekah Hart, 28, and Robert Burns, 38, from Ayrshire, pleaded guilty to various fraud charges.

Burns, the company's site manager, admitted clocking-in cards for others, but insisted it was only when workers were delayed by security entrance checks or other "legitimate reasons". Hart pleaded guilty to two sample counts of false accounting.

Also convicted over the scam was quantity surveyor Christopher Ackerman, 33, of Plymouth, who received rewards for turning a blind eye. He claimed the bribes were gifts and that he was only guilty of "stupidity".