A British company will appear before magistrates tomorrow in the first Serious Fraud Office prosecution over overseas corruption.

Mabey & Johnson, which is based in Berkshire and supplies steel bridging, has been charged with offences of corruption and breaching UN sanctions after an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

The prosecution arises from a SFO investigation started in January 2007 over breach of UN sanctions during 2002 over the Iraq “oil for food” programme.

In the course of the investigation, the company’s management decided in February 2008 in effect to “hold up its hands” - the first such case of “self-reporting” that the SFO is seeking to promote.

It made voluntary disclosure to the SFO of evidence indicating that it had tried to influence decision-makers in public contracts in Jamaica and Ghana between 1993 and 2001.

Mabey & Johnson makes pre-constructed bridges and exports them, mostly to developing countries.

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