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This week, four men have been convicted in connection with a corruption and bribery scandal involving multimillion-pound telecoms contracts awarded to Scottish health boards
The High Court in Glasgow found Adam Sharoudi and Gavin Brown, directors of Scottish telco Oricom, guilty of securing over £6 million in NHS contracts through fraud.
The company, founded in Ayrshire in 2008, provided telecoms and video conferencing equipment to various Scottish NHS trusts between 2010 and 2017.
An investigation by NHS Scotland Counter Fraud Services revealed that commercially sensitive procurement information was leaked to Oricom by NHS insiders Alan Hush, a former telecoms manager, and Gavin Cox, head of IT infrastructure at NHS Lanarkshire. In exchange, Hush and Cox received cash and gifts worth totalling nearly £90,000.
The court heard that one contract awarded to Oricom without proper tendering was worth over £3.1 million.
Prosecutors argued that Oricom was given an unfair commercial advantage, undermining procurement integrity and costing taxpayers millions.
Lord Arthurson, presiding over the case, called the actions “a coldly calculated and criminal betrayal of the welfare state,” adding that the four men should expect significant prison sentences.
All four men remain in custody before sentencing next month.
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