A SENIOR manager for a security company which installed systems at Hartlepool nuclear power station has been jailed for 18 months for corruption.

John Thoroughgood, 38, funded a champagne lifestyle after accepting £400,000 in bribes from contractors employed by Modern Integrated Systems (MIS) to carry out work at power plants around the country.

He pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to one charge of corruption.

John Whitfield, prosecuting, said Thoroughgood, a project manager, cost his employers £2m between November 1992, and June 1996.

He banked a fortune in cash payments - largely from CHS Electrical and Mechanical Systems - and processed 350 bogus invoices for work which was never done, until an inquiry was started into possible overcharging at Hartlepool and Dungeness power plants.

His kickbacks paid for an extravagant lifestyle.

Thoroughgood, of Kings North, Ashford, Kent, was finally confronted by his former employers at a meeting in October 1997, and admitted his deception.

Speaking after the verdict, a spokesman for British Energy, which now runs the Hartlepool plant, was unable to give details of how Thoroughgood's deceit had affected the North-East station.

But he said:"This happened in the days prior to British Energy when we were in public ownership, but we are glad to see that eventually justice has been done."