Italian fraud ‘had UK link’

Police point finger at British BT execs

BT bosses in the UK have allegedly been linked to a £530million accounting fraud in the telecoms giant’s Italian arm.

The company had always insisted its executives in the UK knew nothing about the dodgy practices – but Italian prosecutors have claimed otherwise.

Now emails between BT’s parent company and managers in Italy have emerged that appear to question the firm’s stance.

Italian police claim they show there was pressure to hit “ambitious economic targets, even using aggressive, anomalous and knowingly wrong accounting practices”.

The report contains emails allegedly sent by Brian More O’Ferrall, currently finance director at BT Wholesale, who at the time was chief financial officer for BT Europe.

BT refused to be drawn on the claims, or O’Ferrall’s alleged involvement. The firm said in a statement: “As legal proceedings are ongoing, this is not something BT will be commenting on.”

Prosecutors allege that a network of people in BT’s Italian offshoot exaggerated sales, faked contract renewals and invoices, and invented bogus supplier transactions.

It is claimed such dodgy practices went on for years.

BT wrote down the value of its Italian business in October 2016 due to what it called “inappropriate behaviour”.

In January 2017 it announced that an internal audit had found “serious accounting irregularities” that forced it to slash the value of the offshoot by £530m. Former BT chief executive Gavin Patterson, who stepped down earlier this year, said at the time: “We are deeply disappointed with the improper practices we have found in our Italian business.”