Tory chair’s ex-firm admitted benefiting from bribery

The new chairman of the Scottish Conservatives led a company which admitted benefitting from “corrupt payments” made to a Russian firm.

Oil drilling multi-national Abbot Group told prosecutors it profited from the transactions which were made in 2007 in relation to a contract to supply oil rigs.

At that time, the new Tory chair Alasdair Locke was executive chairman and a major shareholder of Abbot, which he also founded.

After making the admission to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in 2012, Abbot – by then under new owners – agreed to pay a £5.6m settlement under Proceeds of Crime legislation, the amount of profit the company said it made from the Russian deal.

Locke – who left Abbot in 2009 – criticised the new owners’ decision to admit wrongdoing and “vigorously denies” any payments made by Abbot were corrupt.

But former Labour MSP Neil Findlay said: “The reputation of politics is already at an all time low and here we have the Scottish Tories appointing as their chairman someone whose company had to pay a £5.6m ‘settlement’ under Proceeds of Crime legislation as a result of a dodgy deal with a Russian oil company.

“Tory leader Russell Findlay’s attempt to paint himself as ‘Mr Law and Order’ will lie in tatters if this appointment stands.”

Jolyon Maugham, director of the Good Law Project added: “In a dynamic world, there is so little we can safely rely on. The Catholicism of a new Pope, the ursine preference for wooded areas when nature calls, and the embroilment of senior Tories in bungs for contracts scandals.

“It may seem like everything changes – but some things remain the same.”

Locke claimed to The Ferret the payments were actually made to cancel a contract in Russia which an employee in Germany had entered into without the knowledge of Abbot’s board.

Abbot was a victim because it had to make payment to get out of the contract which would have been “loss-making” for the company, he said.

The businessman added that police have investigated “thoroughly” and found there was “no case to answer”.

Professor Richard Barrington, an expert in anti-corruption who has advised both the private and public sector on bribery issues, said the case “raises all sorts of questions” now that Locke holds a “senior position with a Scottish political party”.

A Scottish Conservative spokesperson said: “Mr Locke responded to this 12 years ago. We don’t have anything else to add.”

Locke was appointed Scottish Tory chairman in November and has donated over £1.2m to the party since 2001.

According to COPFS, the payments in 2007 only came to light after they were flagged by an “overseas tax authority” in 2011, prompting an internal investigation within Abbot which was by then under new owners.

Abbot subsequently came forward in 2012 to confess wrongdoing under a self-reporting scheme for bribery set up by COPFS.

Abbot’s settlement with the Civil Recovery Unit – which recovers the proceeds of unlawful conduct on behalf of the Scottish Government – meant the company was protected from prosecution.

But when the settlement was first reported in 2012, details of where the payments were made were not released in case there was a criminal investigation into individuals involved.

COPFS has now said the payments were made in connection with a contract entered into by a German subsidiary of Abbot, Bentec Drilling, to “supply drilling rigs to a Russian company”. Bentec was wholly owned by Abbot at the time.

A COPFS spokesperson said: “There are no active criminal proceedings and, given the historic nature of the case, it would not be appropriate to comment.”

Abbot said in 2012 it was “deeply disappointed” that “improper” payments had taken place and that all personnel involved had left the firm.

After discovering the payments the company commissioned auditors to “review more than one hundred contracts” covering a period of 12 years and none were reported to COPFS.

Locke criticised the settlement as “a travesty” in 2012. “It’s a nonsense that the company has confessed to something without talking to anybody who was in charge at the time and under an act [the Bribery Act] that didn’t exist at the time”, he told The Times.

Locke told The Ferret that as chairman he was “fully aware” of what happened in regards to the Russian deal and is “confident” Abbot took “the correct action in dealing with the situation”.

He added: “Suffice it to say that I am quite sure that Abbot was not involved in any corrupt payments in this case and indeed the opposite is the case.”

Locke is currently the chairman of Motor Fuel Group, which operates petrol station forecourts across the UK. He reportedly collected nearly £120m from the sale of Abbot to a US private equity firm in March 2008.

Last year The Ferret revealed his estate in Moray had breached rules around rural subsidies including for overclaiming what it was entitled to, claiming green funding for ineligible land, and mismanaging land.

He is a major donor to the Tories and has contributed over £1.2m to the party since 2001 including £25,000 to Russell Findlay’s leadership campaign in September 2024.

Findlay said he was “incredibly grateful and proud” to receive Locke’s backing and described him as “one of Scotland’s leading entrepreneurs”.

KCA Deutag – the new trading name of Abbot – was asked to comment.

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