Royal Household property manager faces jail for taking more than £50,000 in bribes to give firms lucrative contracts at Kensington, St James's and Buckingham Palaces

Ronald Harper was paid more than £50,000 in return for showing favour
He helped heating, building and energy firms to win lucrative contract
Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle are among overseen properties

9 August 2016

Ronald Harper, 63, was paid more than £50,000 in return for showing favour to heating, building and energy firms

A deputy property manager in the Royal Household was today warned he faces jail for helping companies win lucrative contracts at some of London’s most iconic residences.

Ronald Harper, 63, was paid more than £50,000 in return for showing favour to heating, building and energy firms over a five year period.

The work at Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace and Kensington Palace, was funded by the Civil List, now called the Sovereign Grant, and came straight out of taxpayer’s pockets.

Harper’s services to the Queen were recognised when he was made a Member of the Royal Victorian Order in 2004.

It can now be revealed that he was convicted earlier this year of conspiracy to make corrupt payments between 2006 and 2011 in relation to Melton Power Services (MPS).

Harper pocketed ‘at least £55,000’ in bribes from MPS for helping them win the lucrative contracts.

The case can be reported finally after Harper was today found guilty of another corruption charge - involving BSI Nordale after a second linked trial.

Directors of BSI Nordale Christopher Murphy, 54, and Aseai Zlaoui, 39, were both convicted alongside Harper of making corrupt payments to win palace contracts.

BSI won contracts for work at both Buckingham Palace and St James’ Palace thanks to Harper, Southwark Crown Court heard

Harper’s brother-in-law Alan Rollinson, 67, was earlier convicted of laundering £20,000 from BSI but cleared of laundering thousands of pounds in profit for MPS.

MPS company director Steven Thompson, 62, earlier admitted conspiracy to commit fraud, while

Thompson and GO Power director Glynn Orridge, 66, admitted fraudulently using their companies as part of the conspiracy.

Judges Nicholas Loraine-Smith thanked jurors for their hard work.

Directors of BSI Nordale Christopher Murphy, 54, and Aseai Zlaoui, 39, (pictured) were both convicted alongside Harper of making corrupt payments to win palace contracts

He said Harper had ‘quite brilliantly disguised’ the scheme and warned he is ‘certainly going to go to prison for quite a long time’.

The charges arose following an investigation by Leicestershire Police’s Financial Investigation Unit.

Harper, who was responsible for more than £2million worth of palace contracts, took thousands of pounds in bribes from companies hoping to gain the lucrative deals.

Buckingham Palace, St James’ Palace, Clarence House and Windsor Castle are among the properties that were overseen by him during his time in the role.

David Durose, prosecuting, said: ‘[Harper] received what were in effect bribes from companies with who he had dealings to show favour to them in the course of his employment.

‘Some of the payments that he received as such bribes were disguised as being paid through the bank accounts of others.’

His job description was ‘to procure works in the most cost-effective manner’ for the palaces.

‘He had a key role to play in the awarding of contracts from outside businesses to provide services to the Royal Household.’

Harper extended a contract with MPS on a yearly basis without considering competitors despite knowing that this was not standard procedure.

Harper’s brother-in-law Alan Rollinson (pictured right, with Harper) was earlier convicted of laundering £20,000 from BSI but cleared of laundering thousands of pounds in profit for MPS

MPS received contracts from the Royal Household worth £569,000 between 2003 and 2012 - though it is not believed that all of these were corruptly awarded.

Until 2008 Thompson was a partner of MPS - which provided ‘high voltage electrical equipment’.

That year the company was sold to the Freedom Group which supposedly made their dealings with Harper more difficult due to Thompson no longer being the boss.

The takeover saw the MPS partners take home ‘almost £4million’ between them which was related to Harper receiving £22,000 in 2009 in part from Thompson’s account.

‘There were further unexplained cash deposits into Mr Harper’s bank accounts totalling in excess of £20,000,’ Mr Durose added.

In February 2010 Thompson made a cheque out to cash for £2,500 which the prosecutor noted had ‘Ron Harper’ written on it.

Corrupt payments were made to Harper from MPS Ltd through ‘inflated invoices’.

Mr Durose explained subcontractors would over-charge the household for work carried out so that Harper could take a cut.

‘Everybody is on the take in relation to some of these deals,’ the prosecutor claimed.

Harper, who was responsible for more than £2million worth of palace contracts, took thousands of pounds in bribes from companies hoping to gain the lucrative deals

As well as Harper getting a portion of the profit Thompson was also handed a cut for organising the deals.

Mr Durose also suggested that MPS having a Royal Warrant would likely have meant they were ‘a more attractive proposition’.

During the first trial jurors were shown an email from Thompson which had a number of documents attached.

The email, sent on November 20, 2006, had the subject line ‘Buckingham Palace Distribution Board’ and related to a potential quote for work to be done at the palace.

Attached, along with a quote from MPS, were falsified quotes pertaining to be from two other companies vying for the contract.

On both of these quotes the word ‘trunking’ was spelt incorrectly as ‘truncing’ and the prosecutor suggested this had been due to a copy and paste approach to their creation.

Mr Durose explained that these quotes were higher than the MPS quote so that it would appear the Royal Household were getting the best value for money.

Thompson asked others to ‘print them off, sign them’ and to used ‘the lads or Sue’ for the signatures on the fake quotes.

He also asked a colleague to post them from Nottingham and London which is where the two companies supposedly behind the quotes were based.

Mr Durose said: ‘It is clear from the email that there is an implication that Mr Thompson has effectively fabricated some quotes for other companies to submit to Buckingham Palace along with the quote from his company MPS.’

Mr Durose explained that similar false quotes had also been found in relation to a contract at St James’ Palace.

A later email outlined the proposed split of funds between MPS employees and Harper.

Thompson supposedly told a colleague that he would gain ‘£1,500 for a day at Buckingham Palace’ and mentioned initially that he would pocket £1,000 and that ‘Ron gets £4,727’ - though these figures were later recalculated.

BSI were paid almost £750,000 for work at the palaces which made up more than 75% of their turnover for two years running.

Harper had been Murphy’s line manager at Harrods before he left and Zlaoui began working for the luxury store as an engineering and energy manager.

Harper had been Murphy’s (pictured) line manager at Harrods before he left and Zlaoui began working for the luxury store as an engineering and energy manager

A notebook belonging to Zlaoui was found which showed ‘the system being exploited’ as it featured notes including ‘make some up’ following a meeting with Harper.

Two payments of £10,000 each were paid by BSI to Rollinson, purporting to be for ‘various items of furniture’, but the money eventually wound up with Harper receiving his bribe.

Rollinson paid off Harper’s wife’s credit card bill after marking one of his cheques as ‘Kim and Ron’s’ - which was later scribbled out.

Harper, of Churchgate, Glemsford, Sudbury, Suffolk, was today (tues) found guilty conspiracy to make corrupt payments and cleared of a second count of the same offence.

He was convicted of one charge of conspiracy to make corrupt payments following his first trial in June.

Murphy, of Witham, Essex, and Zlaoui, also of Witham, were each convicted of one charge of conspiracy to make corrupt payments.

Rollinson, of Leigh-On-Sea, Essex, was found guilty of one count of converting or transferring criminal property.

Orridge, and Thompson, both of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, had earlier admitted fraud charges.

Harper was earlier cleared of corruption relating to alleged payments from former director of DWEC David Woodhams, 48, who was also found not guilty.

Harper and Harry Howard, 80, director of Atlantic 2000, was cleared of corruption relating to Howard’s company - relating to an oil, tank and boiler system given to Harper as a bribe.

Howard, of Racefield Hamlet, Chadderton, Oldham, had denied conspiracy to make corrupt payments.

Harper was also cleared of corruption relating to alleged payments from former director of DWEC David Woodhams, 48, of The Courtyard, Stanmer Village, Brighton, was also acquitted.