Greenwich Council lifts fraud cost taxpayers £1.5million

Stephen Johnson, 62, of Pinewood Avenue in Sidcup, was jailed for five years for conspiracy to commit fraud by abuse of position.

Stuart Wickham, 40, of Briar Road in Bexley, was jailed for 42 months for the same offence.

The council will now take legal action to try to recoup the money.

The pair were sacked in 2018 after an anonymous whistleblower triggered an internal investigation.

But they were not punished until last month, when they appeared for sentence at Woolwich Crown Court.

The council’s oversight of lift repairs had been so lax that works were even signed off in an abandoned building scheduled for imminent demolition.

Whistleblower

In October 2016, the council received an anonymous letter outlining corruption in its lift department.

The source, who was never identified, reported that Greenwich was being charged for phoney repairs.

They said Johnson was passing fictitious jobs to a contractor, who was in turn paying him backhanders.

Months later another letter arrived, this time providing more detail. It suggested the council investigate lift works on the Shooters Hill estate.

Investigators found six lifts, which had only recently been refurbished, had been referred for unnecessary repairs at a cost of almost £9,000.

The council began a more thorough investigation.

An anonymous tip-off about lift repairs on the Shooters Hill estate uncovered a years-long scam which cost Greenwich taxpayers more than £1.5m (Image: Google Streetview)

Secret Emails

Johnson, who had worked for the council for 25 years, had the power to order repairs on almost 400 lifts in council-owned buildings.

When investigators examined his work email account, they found a secret folder filled with messages about a particular external contractor being used for lift repairs.

Greenwich Council’s press office told the News Shopper that this contractor “invoiced the council” for jobs sent by Johnson and his co-conspirator Wickham.

“The contractor then made personal payments to the pair as a reward for raising the unnecessary repairs,” it said.

An email thread involving Johnson and the contractor contained incriminating statements, boasting about how much money they could make.

“We could clean up,” the contractor wrote.

However, the contactor has not been convicted, so the News Shopper is not naming him.

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Unnecessary Jobs

When the council investigated the alleged repairs referred to the contractor, it found no evidence of many of them having ever been carried out.

Some of the fraudulent jobs were brazen.

In August 2011, an order was placed for the lift pit floors in Lebrun Square on the Kidbrooke estate to be screeded and painted.

Lebrun Square had already been decanted ahead of a redevelopment.

Nobody had lived there for months. It was awaiting demolition.

Fake jobs were continually ordered from 2011 until 2017, when the council’s investigation corroborated the 2016 whistleblower letter.

Some lifts had the same alleged repairs, which should last more than a decade, between two and four times in six years.

Lift repairs were ordered on the Ferrier estate, also known as the Kidbrooke estate, even though it was being decanted for demolition

The Co-Conspirator

Johnson was arrested in August 2017 at the Birchmere Business Centre, where his council office was located.

The contractor was arrested on the same day.

Investigators found the contractor had made monthly “wage” payments for almost five years to the wife of one of Johnson’s colleagues, Stuart Wickham.

The council investigated Wickham’s activity on its computer systems and found he too had commissioned suspicious repairs.

Wickham was questioned at Plumstead police station in late 2017.

He and Johnson were sacked in 2018 and eventually charged with conspiracy to commit fraud by abuse of position.

They each pleaded guilty in July 2021, but did not appear for sentence until March 30, 2023.

The contractor pleaded not guilty and was acquitted at trial.

Stephen Johnson's custody image, taken upon his 2017 arrest. Stuart Wickham was not arrested, so has no police mugshot (Image: Met Police)

Total Loss

The council said last month’s prison sentences were the conclusion of “a long and complex investigation”.

“Stephen Johnson and Stuart Wickham defrauded taxpayers in the Royal Borough of Greenwich of £1,545,184.52,” it said.

“The council is pleased with the outcome of the trial and steps are already being taken under the Proceeds of Crime Act to pursue them for all the money that they gained as a result of the fraud.”

The council said that following an internal review of its lift maintenance service, it had “strengthened” its internal controls “to prevent this from ever happening again”.