Slaughters' ex-manager convicted

Terence Dyke will serve 18 months for taking £123,000 in money transfers and cash from two courier firms. In return, he guaranteed the companies business with Slaughters, which in 1998 was spending £700,000 a year on couriers.
Dyke admitted conspiring to accept corrupt payments in return for business for 11 years, between May 1987 and June 1998. The scam was discovered in 1998 after an anonymous tip-off; the City of London Police were then called in.
Dyke was arrested with his wife Wendy and two managing directors of courier firm Speed Service International - Richard Hyde and Richard Cooke - who were involved but did not blow the whistle.
The conspiracy was almost discovered in 1993 when a rival company became suspicious; an inquiry was then set up by Slaughters, which concluded that nothing was wrong.
Wendy Dyke was sentenced to seven months, suspended for two years, and fined £10,000.
Sentencing the four, Mr Justice Wilkinson told Dyke: "Your conduct constituted a gross breach of trust. There may be no specific evidence of price-fixing, but in protecting a share of business for the couriers, other more honest carriers were excluded."