Skellett cleared of £1m bribe allegations

Colin Skellett, the chairman of Wessex Water who was arrested last year on suspicion of taking a £1m bribe to sell the business, was yesterday cleared of all allegations against him.

He was arrested in a dawn raid on his home in Bath in August, while police stormed the offices of Wessex Water in search of incriminating documents. After spending 11 hours in the cells of his local police station, Mr Skellett was released on bail. The City of London Police yesterday said it had ended its investigation and will not be bringing charges against him.

"I was fast asleep when the doorbell went and there was seven men outside my house in suits, saying they were from the City of London Police," Mr Skellett said. "There were another seven at my office. They spent four hours searching my house and kept me in the police station for 11 hours."

While relieved his ordeal is over, he is angry the police chose to publicise his arrest. "I understand the police has to investigate a complaint, but I don't know why they had to make it so public. We [the police and Mr Skellett] agreed to keep the matter quiet, but when I left the station I returned home to find my house besieged with the media. It turns out the police had sent out embargoed press releases and lined people up for interviews. I feel as if I've been tried without any charges even being brought," he said.

Suspicion over Mr Skellett's affairs was roused after he received a large payment in to his bank account, shortly after the Malaysian utilities giant, YTL, trumped the Royal Bank of Scotland with a £545m 11th-hour bid for Wessex. The deal with RBS was all but complete when YTL stepped in and won over Wessex's US owners, Azurix, a unit of Enron. The deal took the City by surprise.

Mr Skellett, backed by Wessex Water and its new owner, insisted the payment from YTL was an upfront fee to work as a consultant to the Malaysian company. "I said from the start that I had no influence on the selection of YTL as the successful bidder for Wessex Water. Everyone expected we would be sold to RBS. The deal with YTL was done in the US without our involvement. It is so transparent that I had nothing to do with it. I am just amazed it took the police so long," he said.

He kept his position at Wessex while on bail, but the investigation did cost Mr Skellett his chairmanship of the engineering company, Jarvis.

"Even though you know what the truth is and everyone who knows you know believes you, there are always people who will think there was something in the allegations. It is wonderful to have it finally over," Mr Skellett said yesterday. He said that the past six months had been the hardest for his wife to bear.

Keith Harris, the finance director at Wessex Water, yesterday said: "None of Colin's colleagues had the slightest doubt that he was innocent of these misconceived allegations. We are very pleased that this matter has now come to an end."

Mr Skellett will continue in his role as chairman at Wessex Water for the forseeable future, but does plan to step down to a part-time role to concentrate on consultancy work.