A SENIOR executive at a defence contractor has escaped a court grilling on why he fabricated documents in a legal row over a multi-million Clyde warship deal.
Tom Stark, managing director of Stepps-based Ticon Insulation, last year admitted faking documentary evidence in a dispute over a contract to fit out the Royal Navy's Type-45 destroyers.
The dispute - including Mr Stark's confessed fabrications -was scheduled to come to a full civil proof in the Court of Session this week but has been cancelled after Ticon and its former sub-contractor, Deck-Rite, settled out of court.
It is understood Mr Stark's company, a subsidiary of Norwegian multi-national Wilh Wilhelmsen, has agreed to make substantial payments to Deck-Rite, which had sued Ticon for around £750,000.
Wilh Wilhelmsen has made no comment on behalf of Ticon or Mr Stark, saying it did not discuss live court proceedings or personnel matters.
The company added: "We have a clear code of conduct to which all employees are required to adhere and demands the highest ethical standards from all our employees in all their business dealings."
Mr Stark last year admitted fabricating evidence - he said he recreated a document that he insisted had existed during the tender process. However, he denied any contempt of court.
Deck-Rite, which is based in Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire, sued Ticon claiming it is due for work it carried out insulating the decks of the six hi-tech Type-45s.
Ticon initially disputed that it owed the money. The fabrication of documents was carried out as it tried to prove its case, which included a statement that it had invited two other companies to tender as well as Deck-Rite.
The company produced a tender letter from one of those firms. However, Ticon has since admitted this letter, crucial to the commercial dispute and supposedly nearly a decade old, was fake.
In a minute lodged by lawyers for Deck-Rite, Ticon and Mr Stark were accused of "a premeditated and sophisticated scheme to procure and present a fabricated document with the intention of deceiving the court and thereby interfering with the proper administration of justice and subverting a fair trial".
The document added: "It is criminal at common law. The false evidence given by Mr Stark on oath at the open commission amounts separately to an offence."
In formal documents lodged with the court, lawyers on behalf of Ticon said: "The purported tender dated April 14, 2004, was a fabrication."
But they claimed the fake was the result of a "gross misconception" on the part of Mr Stark whose conduct "did not involve wilful defiance of, or disrespect towards, the court".
Back in July 2013, Lord Woolman declined a motion for the alleged contempt of court to be heard separately. Mr Stark - if found guilty - could have faced jail. With the civil proof cancelled thanks to the out-of-court settlement, he is not now expected to face any further proceedings.
It is rare for contempt of court allegations to arise during civil or commercial cases in Scotland. However, contempt of court at the Court of Session, if proved or admitted, would be punishable by a up to two years in jail, a fine or both.
Deck-Rite, like Wilh Wilhelmsen, was unavailable for comment last night. The company specialises in fitting out both naval and commercial ships. Ticon, after the Type-45s, worked on a £57million deal to insulate the two new aircraft carriers being partly built on the Clyde.
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