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London council workers jailed for £1.5m contract fraud
Two council workers from a borough in London have been jailed for their part in a £1.5m fraud involving unnecessary lift repairs.
At the end of March, Stephen Johnson of Pinewood Avenue, Sidcup, and Stuart Wickham of Briar Road, Bexley, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud by abuse of position at Woolwich Crown Court and sentenced to five years and three-and-a-half years respectively.
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The pair defrauded taxpayers in the Royal Borough of Greenwich of just over £1.5m by raising unnecessary lift repairs that were completed by an external contractor who invoiced the council for the repairs.
The contractor then made personal payments to the pair as a reward for raising the unnecessary repairs.
A council spokesperson told Inside Housing that it was “pleased with the outcome of the trial and steps are already being taken under the Proceeds of Crime Act to pursue them for all the money that they gained as a result of the fraud”.
They added: “This conviction concludes a long and complex investigation. The pair had been dismissed from council service in August 2018 after our own internal investigation suspected them of fraud.
“Since then, the council has concluded its own internal review of its lift maintenance service which has resulted in a strengthening of internal controls to prevent this from ever happening again.”
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