Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

Mr Poulson was asked about a letter to Sir Bernard Kenyon, former Clerk to West Riding County Council, who was director of a Poulson company. The letter was about representational expenses, including entertainment. Mr Cobb asked if the philosophy was, “The bigger the job, the more lavish the entertainment.” Mr Poulson said some councils wanted the whole council to be entertained, others only the housing committee chairman and clerk. Without entertainment, they would not have seen his company, Open Systems Building. Mr Cobb turned to another section of the letter, which stated: “An authority giving us 750 houses obviously has to have more spent on it than authority giving us 25.” Mr Poulson said, “It was not corruption, because it was generally done by every building firm in this land in the housing field. The conduct that goes on – I have never been there – is absolutely deplorable.” There was lavish spending and “so much drinking and entertaining”. Mr Cobb asked, “What is meant by entertaining?” Mr Poulson replied, “Lunches, but in the case of housing conferences sometimes accommodation.” “You are saying, ‘if you are going to get 750 houses, lay it on thick and give them a cabaret and the lot?'” “No, sir, I would quickly like to dispel any ideas that any authority gave us 750 houses.”

Comment

Comment

From John Calder’s obit of Poulson:

Much of the change in popular perception of the Labour Party during the Wilson era was due to the growing corruption of safe, large, spending Labour councils, particularly in the north-east of England; this benefited the other major parties because it was from 1970 that many traditional but disillusioned Labour electors changed their votes.

[…]

In 1939 Poulson obtained exemption from military service, which enabled him to extend his practice during the war and he was well-placed for the post-war boom. He also by then knew many politicians of all parties.

[…]

By 1949 Poulson was well established and using his political contacts to obtain large-scale civic work. He noted that many councillors had substantial financial power but were themselves living on small incomes and he used bribes as his main weapon, being often surprised how much work he could obtain with small inducements accompanied by lavish hospitality. In the Sixties he built a series of public hospitals and grandiose new town centres with public money – including the Arndale Centre, in Leeds. By 1965 the practice was one of the largest in Europe with a turnover of more than £1m and a net profit of £96,000; in 1966 it was £1.16m, with a net profit of £112,500.

In June 1972, pressed for unpaid tax by the Inland Revenue, Poulson made his first appearance at Wakefield County Court, in Yorkshire, to be examined as a bankrupt. At first his debts were estimated at £250,000, but four years later the figure had risen to some £1m. Reginald Maudling, the Conservative MP, who had formerly been chairman of two of Poulson’s companies, resigned as Home Secretary.

Poulson was prosecuted for conspiracy the following year. It was the largest case of public corruption brought in Britain this century, but it was played down politically because both major parties were involved and the public had only seen the tip of the iceberg: a fraction of the 27,000 files on the case has been made public and, as the Salmon Committee on Standards in Public Life put it: ‘We doubt if Mr Poulson would ever have been prosecuted but for his bankruptcy and his habit of meticulously preserving copies of everything he wrote or that was written to him.’

This contemporary Guardian profile is excellent, and Mark Knights’ piece was a good introduction for me.

The autobiography of T. Dan Smith, another collaborator of Poulson’s, is here. Reginald Maudling’s memoirs shouldn’t be read without comparison with Lewis Baston’s biography.

Investigative journalist Neil Wilby in a piece re Bernard Kenyon’s scandal-prone daughter, Jane Kenyon, says he left his job with West Riding County Council in 1968 following a Yorkshire Post exposé.

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Original

John Poulson, the former architect, was questioned at his trial at Leeds Crown Court yesterday about his understanding of the word “corruption”. He said he thought it meant bringing influence to bear in order to get something that could not be obtained through normal procedures.
Mr Poulson, aged 63, from Pontefract, Yorkshire, was being cross-examined on the twenty-seventh day of his trial with George Pottinger, aged 57, a senior Scottish Civil Servant, on corruption charges,
Asked if he meant something that could not be obtained by lawful means, Mr Poulson replied “… contrary to the usual practice accepted by the professional bodies”.
Mr John Cobb, QC, for the prosecution, referred to a Poulson letter, which mentioned half a dozen bottles of whisky being given to the general manager of Peterlee Development Corporation.
Mr Poulson said his company had done work for the corporation for 10 years and that was a Christmas gift. It was not a corrupt gift aimed at getting additional work.
Mr Cobb asked him about another sentence in the letter, which read: “I am going to try and get some additional work, hence the whisky.” Mr Poulson replied that that was an incorrect statement. He did not think whisky would have played any part in the volume of work done for the corporation, and it was not essential to give whisky to get the work,
Mr Poulson said it was not difficult to get work from the corporation’s general manager, because of the success of the work the practice had done over the previous 10 years.
Mr Cobb asked: “Would you agree that to lavish a gift on a person who was in a position to influence a contract in your direction would be a brief description of corruption?” Mr Poulson replied: “It might be yours, but six bottles of whisky for that amount of work we were doing, and the connexions over the past 10 years, no, sir.”
Mr Poulson was then asked about a letter to Sir Bernard Kenyon, former Clerk to West Riding County Council, who was director of a Poulson company. The letter was about representational expenses, including entertainment.
Mr Cobb asked if the philosophy was: “The bigger the job the more lavish the entertainment.”
Mr Poulson said some councils wanted the whole council to be entertained, others only the housing committee chairman and clerk. Without entertainment, they would not have seen his company, Open Systems Building.
Mr Cobb turned to another section of the letter, which stated: “An authority giving us 750 houses obviously has to have more spent on it than authority giving us 25.”
Mr Poulson said: “It was not corruption, because it was generally done by every building firm in this land in the housing field. The conduct that goes on – I have never been there – is absolutely deplorable.” There was lavish spending and “so much drinking and entertaining”.
Mr Cobb asked: “What is meant by entertaining?” Mr Poulson replied: “Lunches, but in the case of housing conferences sometimes sometimes accommodation.”
You are saying, “if you are going to get 750 houses, lay it on thick and give them a cabaret and the lot?-No, sir, I would quickly like to dispel any ideas that any authority gave us 750 houses.
Was it your belief that if you dispensed lavish hospitality to persons in a position of influence you would be likely to get work, whereas a rival in the profession would not?-We couldn’t, sir.
Mr Poulson said he had never thought of himself as a name-dropper, but some people seemed to believe he was. He once asked a member of his staff to mention that he knew Mr Reginald Maudling, but that was done sarcastically because Sir Harry Vincent, the Bovis group chief, was always naming Sir Keith Joseph, his cousin.
Asked whether it would have done him any good if his name had been dropped at the Scottish Regional Hospital Board or the Scottish Office, Mr Poulson said he already knew Sir Norman Graham, a senior civil servant, and that had not done him much good.
“I never met any civil servant, with the exception of the Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Health in London, who ever influenced any work my way”, he added.
Mr Poulson was asked about the money he paid for The Pelicans, Mr Pottinger’s house. He had promised to pay £10,000, but had been unaware that that rose by at least a further £8,000.
“I was not aware at that time because I had foolishly not kept a record,” he continued. “I did not keep a list and I was not aware of it.”
Mr Cobb asked: “Were you aware you had paid more than £10,000?”
Mr Poulson replied: “No, sir, because I was more interested in sorting out the chaotic mess I was in.”
Mr Cobb suggested that Mr Poulson had let Mr Pottinger go on thinking he was a rich man when he was insolvent.
Mr Poulson replied: “I knew my affairs were being dealt with. Mr Grimwood [his solicitor] seemed to be quite sure I would be in business again and all my creditors paid.”
In reply to further questions Mr Poulson said he did not appreciate at the time that he wrote a letter at Mr Grimwood’s suggestion that he was writing lies.
Questioned by Mr Justice Waller, Mr. Poulson said that he now realized he had written lies, but he had not appreciated that at the time. He continued: “I can see it now but I am afraid at that time I just did as I was told. It is unbelievable, I appreciate that.”
He agreed that what he had written was a description of some corruption but added: “I did exactly as Grimwood wanted. I worshipped him almost, I found out later that all Mr Grimwood’s promises were false. I was mentally ill.”
The hearing continues today.

1003 words.

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• Bernard Kenyon (1) ·
• Bribery (5) ·
• Conservative Party (1834-) (22) ·
• Corruption in local government (6) ·
• Corruption (11) ·
• Fraud (21) ·
• Home construction (3) ·
• John Poulson (2) ·
• Labour Party (UK) (17) ·
• Leeds City Council (32) ·
• 📌Leeds (235) ·
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• 📌Pontefract (19) ·
• Reginald Maudling (1) ·
• T. Dan Smith (1) ·
• West Riding of Yorkshire (147) ·

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