Bent police IT boss gets six years

A former police IT boss who took nearly half a million pounds in backhanders has been jailed for six years.

Brian Chant, 62, abused his position as chief information officer at procurement services company Achilles by accepting bribes from a contractor for work with the firm.

The corrupt executive lined his pockets with £470K by receiving secret cuts from his employer for the SPTL and Systems Plus IT contract, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Chant, of Andover, Hampshire, denied receiving a bribe, false accounting and money laundering but was convicted after a five-week trial.

During his trial, Chant tried to claim the money was legitimate compensation for consultancy work.

To cover up his tracks and claim additional money as VAT he sent invoices to the IT companies for the bribe money he had received.

Judge Sally Cahill, QC, said: ‘You have been found guilty, after trial, of one offence of receiving a bribe, one offence of false accounting and one of money laundering.

‘You have been found guilty, in my view, of what was overwhelming evidence.

‘This offending involved you, as Chief Information Officer in the company, set up a scheme where you introduced a potential contractor to that company and you set up an agreement with that contractor where you received 25 percent of the profit they made off your employer Achilles.’

Judge Cahill said it was clear from the evidence of company executives during the trial that they had placed their trust in Chant.

‘It is clear how shocked they were that someone in a senior position not only drew a high salary but helped himself to the company’s money,’ said the judge.

Smartly dressed in a light suit, the disgraced executive did not react as he was taken down to the cells.

He was jailed for six years and disqualified from acting as a company director for three years.

The prosecution will be pursuing confiscation proceedings.

At the time of his arrest in 2016, Chant was working as head of IT services for both Hampshire and Thames Valley police.

In his LinkedIn profile, he boasted about having articles published in the Financial Times and IT publication CIO.