Competition advisers warn regulator must learn from attempt at prosecution

"Those responsible for conducting criminal prosecutions within the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) have in this instance been guilty of incompetence on a monumental scale." The words expressed by defence counsel Ben Emmerson QC, albeit quickly retracted, give some indication of the sentiments in the legal community in reaction to the OFT's decision to drop its much-touted criminal trial against four present and past British Airways (BA) executives last week.

The trial was the culmination of a series of investigations by the OFT into price-fixing of fuel surcharges since 2006, after industry rival Virgin turned whistleblower. However, the watchdog abandoned the case after Virgin, which has immunity from the OFT, revealed approximately 70,000 emails suggesting the airlines had decided to increase fuel surcharges before speaking to each other. As a result, former BA commercial director Martin George, former head of UK and Ireland sales Alan Burnett, ex-communications head Iain Burns and current sales and marketing director Andrew Crawley were acquitted just weeks into a planned six-month trial. Had they been found guilty they could have served five-year jail sentences.