Builder’s false tenders were ‘to benefit local people’

A builder who submitted false tenders to get a £21,500 council grant had sentence deferred yesterday due to it being “a highly unusual case”.

Norman Clark, 54, a selfemployed builder, pleaded guilty at Fort William Sheriff Court.

The married father-of-three admitted that between 2011 and 2012 at the Highland Council's leader programme at its Fort William office he “uttered as genuine” two documents claiming to be tenders from Stewart Construction and GCF for work at the Linnhe Leisure Centre.

The charge went on that Clark knew the tenders were false “whereby a financial grant was provided to Linnhe Leisure for renovation work and equipment at a children's play area at the Nevis Centre”. Defence lawyer Hamish Melrose said his client had lived in Fort William for 21 years and in 2003 was made a director – later chairman – of Linnhe Leisure, the voluntary group that ran the councilowned Nevis Centre.

Clark had difficulties getting tenders for the play area work and saw time running out for getting the grant so carried out the ruse.

The lawyer said: “He made no personal gain. That was not the purpose of what he did.”

Sheriff Bill Taylor said: “This is a highly unusual case. The false pretence regarding the tenders was not motivated by personal gain but to ensure the completion of a project to the benefit of local people.”

He deferred sentence for a year.