Former McAlpine director charged with fraud

The former head of a subsidiary of Alfred McAlpine, the construction support services group and parent of environmental consultancy Enviros, has been charged with fraud and forgery in relation to an accounting scandal over exaggerated sales figures.

Christopher Law, the former managing director of Alfred McAlpine Slate, was charged last week with three separate offences relating to a three-year period during which the subsidiary misrepresented sales filed to the group company. The slate division’s former operations director, Geraint Roberts, and former sales director, Paul Harvey, were also charged with fraudulent trading in relation to the scam. All three are on conditional bail and due to appear before Caernforn Magistrates Court in Wales this week.

McAlpine’s shares plummeted by a fifth in February 2007 (the same month as the acquisition of Enviros) after it reported that internal auditors had uncovered “a systematic misrepresentation of production volumes and sales for a number of years,” at the subsidiary. Alfred McAlpine Slate was sold to a Northern Irish construction group, Lagan, in December 2007. Shortly afterwards, the group agreed a £572 million takeover offer from Carillion, the UK-based international infrastructure and business services firm.

• Serious Fraud Office news release