Brendan Smith fined €7,500 in bid-rigging case

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Brendan Smith was fined €7,500 in a bid-rigging case at the Central Criminal Court. Justice Patrick McCarthy also gave him a three-month suspended prison sentence for impeding the investigation. The proceedings were reported on 1 June 2017.

Smith and Aston Carpets and Flooring pleaded guilty to implementing an agreement that indirectly fixed carpet and flooring prices. The charges covered 1 January 2011 to 30 April 2013. The judge fined the company €10,000 and described the fines as modest.

The report said Smith and David Radburn of Carpet Centre Contracts agreed which company would submit the more competitive quote for a job, with the other offering a higher price. Google, Dell and MasterCard were among the targets of the scheme.

In October 2011, Radburn sent Smith details of a €193,000 Google flooring contract after tendering for it, so Smith could submit a higher price. Competition officials and gardaí raided premises on 30 April 2013. During the raid at Aston Carpets and Flooring, Smith was overheard urging Radburn by phone to get rid of his computer and delete emails.

Lawyers for Aston Carpets and Flooring said the contracts it won had a gross value of €556,000 and an operating profit of €31,000. Smith’s counsel, Michael O’Higgins SC, said Smith received only an indirect benefit from the bid rigging by keeping his job.