The Southwark Crown Court sentenced Noel Corry, a former engineer at Coca-Cola’s UK subsidiary Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), to a 20-month suspended prison sentence as well as 200 hours of unpaid work on the 14th of April. The sentencing was in relation to Corry accepting bribes amounting to more than £15 million in order to help companies win lucrative contracts with CCE between 2004 and 2013, and follows from Corry’s pleading guilty to 5 counts of corruption.
In addition to Corry’s suspended prison sentence, the London Court also fined three UK companies involved in the bribery after 2011 for offences of “failing to prevent bribery” under s.7 UKBA, as well as sentencing two other individuals involved to suspended periods of imprisonment .
The companies’ fines combined exceeded £600,000 and reflected their failure to prevent individuals within their companies from paying bribes to secure contracts worth over £13m from CCE.
Unusually, the Metropolitan Police and CPS carried out the investigation and prosecution into this bribery conspiracy and secured the convictions with sentences reflecting the seriousness and extent of the criminality. The head of economic crime at the Metropolitan Police thanked Coca-Cola for its assistance during the investigation, which was opened in 2013 after Coca-Cola reported the matter.
With thanks to Lubna Fahoum for her contribution
