MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Four men, including two City of Edinburgh Council employees, have been handed down jail terms for corruption involving maintenance contracts for Edinburgh City Council buildings between 2006-2010, Police Scotland said in a statement on Thursday.
Charles Owenson and James Costello, who were both sentenced to approximately four years in jail, helped Action Building Contracts Ltd (ABC) obtain contracts for repairs works to Edinburgh's Council buildings.
"These men knowingly misused public funds to establish building work contracts that ultimately benefited themselves, rather than go through the appropriate and legal channels,” Detective Inspector Arron Clinkscales said, as quoted in the statement published on the Police Scotland website.
All four of the accused pleaded guilty in May, after local police carried out an investigation into the Council's allocation of contracts for building repairs to private companies.