Jeffery Cook, 68, who had worked for the ministry since 1975, has been sent to jail for two and a half years and ordered to pay £123,813.06 after being found guilty of taking £70,000 in secret payments when he worked at the MoD as a senior finance officer and deputy team leader.

The case centred around various payments made to Cook between 2004 and 2008.

A Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation resulted in Cook being sentenced at Southwark Crown Court for receiving payments as ‘gifts’ between 2004 and 2008 when he was working at the Ministry of Defence.

The charges related to contracts taken out by the Ministry of Defence with ME Consultants (MEC), and were linked to a Saudi Arabian National Guard project (SANGCOM).