Weir pleads guilty to Iraq offences

13th Dec 2010 09:06

Scottish engineer Weir is to plead guilty to two charges of breaching UN sanctions against Iraq through its involvement in the oil-for-food programme.Weir will be formally charged with these offences later today and it is expected that the case will be heard at the High Court in Edinburgh on 14 December, following which sentence will be passed.The group is expected to be fined. It has already agreed to hand back £14m it made from the offences admitted today.Lord Smith of Kelvin, the chairman of Weir, said: "What happened was wrong. As I said in 2004, I am bitterly disappointed that this went on within the Weir Group.""Since 2004, when we first disclosed the issue, we have radically overhauled procedures. A strong ethics culture is in place across the group and it is the reference point for everything we do," he added in a statement.