HOSPITAL SCANDAL BOSS IN FRAUD PROBE
Cops are called in as £1.8m legal row looms
a boss linked to Scotland’s hospital construction scandal is at the centre of a fraud probe.
Gordon Dunne’s firm was given multimillion pound public contracts.
A businessman linked to Scotland’s hospital construction scandal is at the centre of a fraud probe.
Gordon Dunne’s f irm, the Dunne Group Ltd, was given mult imi l l ion- pound public contracts for ground works at Glasgow’s Queen El izabeth University Hospital (QEUH) and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh.
Pol lut ed wat er at the £ 842million QEUH has been blamed for the deaths of three people, while the £150million Edinburgh facility hasn’t been able to open because of building safety fears around drainage and ventilation.
We can reveal pol ice are investigating embezzlement allegations made against Dunne in relation to his role at DWS Building and Civil Engineering – a company he was closely linked to after Dunne Group crashed into administration.
A police spokeswoman said: “We can conf irm we have received a report of a possible embezzlement.
“Inquiries are ongoing and at an early stage.”
Dunne, 53, has been a director of four dissolved firms, three of which were l iquidated, and five companies that went into administration.
The complaint made to police about Dunne centres on his involvement in DWS – a firm now in liquidation which had Graham Wright and Lydia Gorman as directors.
Wright, 46, is now engaged in a legal battle with Dunne over its collapse.
He said: “I’m suing Gordon Dunne for £1.87million that was taken out of DWS. He put my company into liquidation. I was a director and he was a shadow director, he was controlling the accounts.”
Falkirk-based Dunne insisted Wright was to blame for the firm’s collapse.
He said: “The police have not been at my door.
“I’m currently taking legal action against Graham Wright for defaming me.
“The problems with the QEUH and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children are mechanical and engineering issues – they have nothing to do with the ground work s that I was involved with.”
The Dunne Group was handed £ 4million in 2016 by primary hospital contractor Multiplex in a bid to keep the f irm af loat midway through the Edinburgh Sick Kids development but it went bust months later, triggering construction delays.
Installing drainage was part of the contract held by the company.
Company accounts show Dunne Management LLP – of which Gordon Dunne was a member – bil led the Dunne Group for management fees of
£ 3.7million over four years. The complex Non-Profit Distributing funding model used to deliver the Edinburgh hospital was brokered by the Scottish Futures Trust after initial plans to use direct Government money were abandoned.
The facility is still not fully operational despite £1.4million of taxpayers’ money being paid to private consortium Integrated Health Solutions Lothian every month.
The Scottish Government stepped in to prevent the Sick Kids opening just a day before it was due to accept patients. A total of 2000 “snagging” problems had been discovered.
The Dunne Group was also a major contractor on the QEUH project in Glasgow, which is mired in controversy after three patients died from infections that have been linked to the water supply.
The circumstances surrounding the death of 10-year- old Milly Main were referred to prosecutors in January.
She died after contracting an infection at the QEUH’s children’s hospital wing as she recovered f rom leukaemia. Her mum
Kimberly Darroch has claimed the family were not informed of a potential link to contaminated water.
Kimberly has described breaking down in tears when she learned an unpublicised clinician-led review had identified 26 infection cases in 2017 possibly linked to dirty water on the cancer ward – including one that led to the death of a child.
Greater Glasgow’s health board has insisted no link has yet been establ ished between the hospi tal ’ s water and the death. But, earlier this month, a review into the QEUH found cancer patients had been put at a higher risk of infection due to the way the building was designed and maintained.
However, it d id not f ind evidence that any avoidable deaths had been caused by the design of the campus.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has said a public inquiry into both hospitals chaired by Lord Brodie is to begin next month.
It will look at issues relating to vent i lat ion, dra inage and building systems.
Freeman has insisted it will make sure the wel lbeing of patients and their families is the top priority in all future building projects.
The inquiry’s remit and terms of reference were published in June and it will have the power to require witnesses to attend and to disclose information.
Labour’s health spokeswoman Monica Lennon called the police probe into Dunne a “serious and worrying development”.
She added: “The SNP’s mismanagement of the QEUH and Sick Kids hospital will have consequences for patients, staff and taxpayers for many years to come.
“Shockingly, private companies continue to profit from the disastrous Sick Kids project, which has become known as the ghost hospital and questions continue to hang over the safety of the QEUH.
“First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and her health ministers promised flagship hospitals but have failed spectacularly.
“Scottish Labour secured a public inquiry into these hospital scandals and it must get under way as soon as possible.”
A Scott ish Government spokesman said: “We cannot comment on a live pol ice investigation.”