Ministry of Defence official took £70,000 in secret payments

A former Ministry of Defence (MoD) official has been jailed after taking £70,000 in secret payments and gifts.

Jeffrey Cook, 67, had been convicted of misconduct in public office for using his role to commission reports from an offshore consultancy firm within which he had personal contacts.

As part of his job, Cook asked ME Consultants Limited to create reports for the MoD between 2005 and 2006.

The MoD spent £702,800 on the reports, paying the firm's Swiss bank account.

London's Southwark Crown Court heard that Cook, from Ceredigion, had been in charge of his department's finances and had commissioned the reports between 2004 and 2008.

The reports were on the MoD's SANGCOM project, which provided military communications equipment to the Saudi Arabian National Guard, the Serious Fraud Office said.

At the time of the offence, MoD rules banned employees from accepting external paid employment.

Cook received multiple forms of remuneration over an 18-month period, during which time he had also been seconded to a defence contractor called Paradigm.

These payments included cars and cash deposits into his and his wife's Barclays bank account.

The first sum was sent in early 2006 and the final in mid-2007, the court was told.

Within that period Cook, who started working for the MoD in 1975, also received two vehicles worth a total of £32,906.

Mr Justice Simon Picken added that he "augmented" his profit by not declaring the money to HMRC and avoiding tax.

Overall he received 10% of the money made by ME Consultants, the judge said.

He added: "You made a personal gain at the expense of the public purse, receiving money that could otherwise have been used for the public in relation to the SANGCOM project or otherwise."

Cook was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment and handed a confiscation order to pay £123,813.06 within three months.

In mitigation, defence barrister Tom Allen said: "These are dramatically old offences that are now standing to be dealt with."

He told the court that Cook - who listened to the proceedings through a hearing aid - had suffered a stroke, heart failure and diabetes during the 12-year period since investigations were launched.

Cook was first interviewed by police in 2014.

Mr Allen said strokes were "caused in part by stress" and therefore Cook's condition "may not have been unconnected with the first three or four years of the prosecution".

He added: "There has to be some understanding by the court of the immense impact that being under suspicion, and then prosecution, has had on him and his family."

The court heard Cook and his wife have a house in west Wales worth around £500,000 and approximately £145,000 in savings.

Mr Allen said: "He's now looking to the end (of life) and his principle concern, and that of his wife, is care.

"They want to try and stay in that house and to use all that money for that purpose."

In a statement, the director of the Serious Fraud Office, Nick Ephgrave, said he was proud of his team for their "determination and tenacity in prosecuting a complex case of corruption involving the defence industry".