Two staff at Bedforshire contractor M&J Group have been fined £25,000 by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for hiding a mobile phone and documents during an inspection.
The CMA were carrying out checks on the premises as part of a wider investigation into 12 contractors suspected of bid rigging on schools projects.
In a statement the CMA said: “During the inspection, M&J’s estimating director, Barry Pirrie, instructed M&J’s office manager, Tracey Woods, to remove a work mobile phone and paperwork from the company’s premises to prevent the evidence from being found by CMA investigators. Pirrie also falsely told CMA officers that he did not have a work mobile phone.”
Risk of wasting “valuable investigative time”
The CMA said the items were retrieved but concealing the evidence “risked the loss of relevant information and wasted valuable investigative time and resource”. Parrie was fined £25,000, Woods £5,000 and the company a further £25,000.
The statement added that the action was separate to the competition investigation “which remains ongoing and no assumptions should be made as to whether competition law has been broken.”
Legal expert Ian Giles, partner and EMEA Head of Antitrust and Competition at Norton Rose Fulbright, said the action showed that hiding evidence even for hours can lead to sizeable fines.
Fines for concealing evidence now standard
He said: “This is notably the first time the CMA has fined individuals for concealing evidence and seems likely to mean that fining relevant individuals, as well as their employer, will become the CMA’s standard practice for such conduct. ”
Giles added that new rules introduced in January 2025 mean fines for such breaches will be higher in future and that future penalties were likely in this particular case.
He said: “The CMA obtained a warrant to raid the home of the managing director of one of the parties last November after learning he used his personal phone for work purposes, contrary to what he said when they raided his employer’s business premises. The name of that individual and his employer have not been revealed, but he does not appear to be one of the people fined today.”
