A MAN who laundered money for his corrupt brother-in-law as part of a Royal Household cash-for-contracts scheme has been spared jail.

Alan Rollinson, 67, of Leigh, helped deputy property manager for the Royal estate Ronald Harper, 64, take a £20k bribe as part of a five-year scheme involving heating, building and energy firms.

Harper, of Sudbury in Suffolk, was paid more than £75,000 in return for handing out contracts for work at Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace and Kensington Palace.

He was convicted earlier this year of conspiracy to make corrupt payments between 2006 and 2011 in relation to Melton Power Services (MPS), after pocketing at least £55,000.

Following a second trial, he was found guilty of taking more bribes from Essex-based building service company BSI Nordale.

Rollinson was found guilty of laundering £20,000 from BSI but cleared of laundering thousands of pounds in profit for MPS.

He was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court yesterday to 12 months, suspended for two years.

Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith also ordered him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work, as he branded bribery “toxic”.

He said he decided “somewhat reluctantly” to suspend the sentence due to Rollinson’s wife’s declining physical health.

He said: “I have no doubt that you knew that they were bribes because you and him are so close.”

Halstead Gazette:

Ronald Harper

During the trial, the court heard two payments of £10,000 were paid into Rollinson’s account from BSI, but he used the cash to pay off Harper’s wife’s credit card bill.

BSI Nordale directors Christopher Murphy, 56, of Purcell Road, Witham, and Aseai Zlaoui, 41, of Baker Way, Witham, were both convicted alongside Harper of making corrupt payments.

Murphy was jailed for 18 months and Zlaou sobbed as she was given a 12 month suspended sentence.

Judge Loraine-Smith said character references for Zlaou painted “a picture of a decent, hard-working woman who would never agree to bribing anyone”.

Jailing Harper for five years, he said: “Nobody could have guessed that a trusted insider such as yourself could think of going to the lengths that you did to corrupt the system for personal gain.

“Your betrayal of your colleagues’ trust and your lack of remorse at what you did are both remarkable.”

He also referred to an award Harper had on display on his office wall, adding: “I wonder how he felt about it as he sat and pocketed the money?”

MPS company director Steven Thompson, 62, and GO Power director Glynn Orridge, 67, both of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, admitted fraud.

Thompson was jailed for for 18 months and Orridge was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.