Fred Philpott considers the twists, turns & quantum leaps of otherwise ordinary-seeming cases
The law has been much concerned with payments made in breach of various types of duty. It is very understandable. Human nature often results in businesses of various types, involving agency, planning, the granting of contracts and many others, having this temptation.
A ‘backhander’ may seem fairly harmless to those involved, but it is insidious and corrosive to our nation. Western Europe, the ‘old’ Commonwealth and North America go to great lengths to prevent this type of corruption. Even so, it will surface—eg in football (Logicrose v Southend United Football Club [1988] 1 WLR 1256) and the infamous case of architect John Poulson in the early 1970s. Other countries may take a lighter view on the issue.
Thus, in the UK we have a substantial body of law in which our judges have, over the centuries, been determined to deal firmly with activities which could be described in a general way as bribery. Lord Justice Tuckey
