More than £266,000 has been confiscated from two company co-directors after they were found guilty of bribing Edinburgh City Council officials.

Kevin Thomas William Balmer, 54, and Brendan Cantwell, 46 were made subject of confiscation orders totalling £95,000 and £171,223.92 respectively, having each previously been jailed for more than two years.

The two men were previously co-directors of Action Building Contracts (ABC) Ltd, a company which specialised in building refurbishments. The company went into voluntary liquidation in 2010.

In 2015, Mr Balmer and Mr Cantwell plead guilty to contravention of the Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889, and Balmer to an additional charge of fraud.

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The pair were found to have bribed council officials with over £42,000 in cash payments and over £30,000 in hospitality inducements, in exchange for ABC being given maintenance and repair contracts. The 'hospitality' included corporate seats at football matches and nights out at bars and lap dancing clubs.

To cover the cost of the bribes, the contractors' falsely inflated their invoices to the local authority.

The two council officials who accepted the bribes were also convicted and the subject of recent confiscation orders.

Liam Murphy, Procurator Fiscal for Specialist Casework, said: "Balmer and Cantwell set out to corrupt those who should have been serving the people of Edinburgh, and siphoned money from the public purse into their own pockets.

"Both were imprisoned for over two years, and today our detailed forensic assessment of their financial history has ensured that they have also been stripped of all of their assets."

(LM/CD)