HGV firm boss jailed for fraudulently billing Spanish company for police escorts

James Campbell, 51, of Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire, was sentenced to 16 months behind bars.

James Campbell was jailed at Airdrie Sheriff Court (PA) (PA Archive)

A former director of a haulage firm has been jailed after a “brazen” fraud involving billing a client for police escorts, some of which never happened.

James Campbell, 51, a director of West of Scotland Heavy Haulage Limited, overcharged a Spanish company by £110,000 for the transportation of wind turbine parts by tampering with invoices from the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) and South Wales Police.

The HGV firm had a contract with Siemens Gamesa in Navarra, Spain, to transport wind farm components to three Scottish sites and another in Wales in 2017, but over the course of eight months, Campbell was altering paperwork to gain additional funds from the client, prosecutors said.

Campbell, of Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire, was jailed for 16 months when he was sentenced at Airdrie Sheriff Court on Tuesday after previously pleading guilty to a charge of fraud, the Crown Office said.

Due to the abnormal size of the loads, HGVs required a police escort, and the contract stipulated this would be charged at cost.

The SPA and South Wales Police invoiced Campbell’s firm, based in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, for the escorts.

West of Scotland Heavy Haulage Limited then incorporated that charge into its costs before forwarding the overall bill to the Spanish client, which raised concerns in June 2017.

Fraud is not a victimless crime. This was a brazen example of an individual inflicting serious financial harm on an overseas company and its employees

Les Brown, procurator fiscal for south Strathclyde

Text messages recovered from July 2017 after police raided the premises showed communications with a colleague about altering SPA invoices before sending them on to Siemens Gamesa, prosecutors said.

Evidence uncovered by Police Scotland’s Economic Crime Unit revealed that between January and August 2017, Campbell altered and falsified invoices from the SPA and South Wales Police to inflate the price of the police escorts.

There were occasions when no escorts were used to accompany HGVs, but Campbell still charged Siemens Gamesa, and a number of fraudulently inflated SPA invoices were also recovered by police, prosecutors said.

The total amount fraudulently obtained was £110,000 and Campbell will now also be the subject of confiscation action under proceeds of crime legislation.

Les Brown, procurator fiscal for south Strathclyde, said: “Fraud is not a victimless crime. This was a brazen example of an individual inflicting serious financial harm on an overseas company and its employees.

“James Campbell was involved in a fraudulent enterprise concerning a significant sum of money. We take such criminality very seriously and will not stop at prosecution and have commenced proceedings to recover the benefit he gained from his criminal activities.

“This case demonstrated the ability of prosecutors and justice partners to effectively prepare and prosecute a crime of this nature and should send a strong message to others involved in this kind of criminal behaviour.”