Andrew Crawley.

The trial of BA sales boss Andrew Crawley for price-fixing has sensationally collapsed after prosecuting counsel Richard Latham told the judge at London’s Southwark Crown Court that he would offer ‘no evidence’.

Crawley was on trial with ex-BA colleagues, former commercial director Martin George, ex-communications head Iain Burns and ex-UK and Irish Republic sales chief Alan Burnett.

All four men had denied any wrongdoing, but had been accused of conspiring with rival airline Virgin Atlantic to fix fuel surcharge prices between 2004 and 2006.

Fair trial impossible

Judge Mr Justice Owen had raised questions about the prosecution's case last Friday. He said he had considered ‘whether the manifest failures on the part of the prosecution are such as to render a fair trial impossible’.

Failure to disclose information

The court heard today (Monday 10 May) how the Office of Fair Trading had failed to disclose key information to the defence. One e-mail, only recently discovered, suggested that Virgin had increased its fuel surcharge without consulting BA, undermining claims that the two had colluded on fixing their surcharges.

Defence counsel William Boyce QC said that, had this e-mail come to light earlier, the case may never have come to court.

Five years

Crawley and his co-accused faced up to five years in jail and unlimited fines had they been found guilty. Price-fixing was criminalised by the 2002 Enterprise Act. However, the four could still prosecution by the US authorities: they are among ten past and present BA staff refused immunity under a plea agreement between the airline and the US Department of Justice over the price-fixing.

In 2008, Crawley was promoted to his current sales and marketing position from his then position as head of sales after the price-fixing scandal came to light. George and Burns resigned from BA in 2006, while Burnett retired in the same year.

See also BA SALES BOSS COULD FACE FIVE YEARS for details of the charges.

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