OAPs are bailed on corruption charges

Two pensioners and three other men aged between 54 and 63 appeared at City of London magistrates' court charged with conspiracy to corrupt over the award of five energy contracts worth £66 million.

The men, all from London and the South-East, were charged with conspiracy to corrupt over the award of the contracts between 2001 and last year.

The charges follow a two-year police probe into allegations that inside information was being offered to companies bidding for high-value energy projects.

Some of the defendants were employed by the companies responsible for procuring these projects. They are alleged to have passed on confidential information about them to others who then offered to provide it to bidders in return for a percentage of the contract value.

Andrew Charles Rybak, 54, of Newbury, Berkshire, Ronald Gwyn Saunders, 63, of Hook in Hampshire, Philip John Hammond, 56, of London, Barry James Smith, 70, of Farnham, Surrey, and Robert Bruce McWaters Storey, 66, of Windlesham in Surrey have been bailed until November.