A defence company that makes sonar for the Royal Navy and missiles supplied by Britain to Ukraine is being investigated over “serious allegations” of bribery and corruption.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on Thursday announced an investigation into France’s Thales, which is one of the Government’s key defence contractors and employs more than 7,000 UK staff.
It comes after police in France, the Netherlands and Spain searched the company’s offices in June, over suspicions of corruption linked to arms sales abroad, according to reports.
The SFO said it would “rigorously pursue every avenue in our investigation”, which is taking place in conjunction with the SFO’s counterpart in France, the Parquet National Financier (PNF).
A Thales spokesman said: “Thales is co-operating with the PNF in France and the SFO in the UK. The group complies with all national and international regulations. As the investigation is ongoing, Thales will not comment further.”
Thales, which generates over £1.1bn in revenue a year in the UK, specialises in defence electronics and won a fresh £1.8bn UK defence contract in February, which will see it help maintain the Royal Navy’s fleet of ships and submarines for the next 15 years.
The company has provided the sonar navigation technology on Britain’s nuclear deterrent for over 50 years. Thales renewed its deal with the Government in a £330m contract in 2020.
In September, the Government placed a £162m order with Thales to build 650 so-called lightweight multi-role missiles to supply to Ukraine.
The lightweight weapons, manufactured at one of Thales’s plants in Belfast, are designed for short-range fire and can hit targets up to about 6km away, either in the air or on the ground.
The company, which is more than a quarter owned by the French state, built scale in the UK through takeovers of British firms including Racal, the defence electronics giant, and Barr and Stroud, the optical engineering firm.
Nick Ephgrave, director of the SFO, said: “Working collaboratively with our international partners is a crucial factor in the fight against international corruption and, with this case, I hope to reinforce the SFO and PNF’s long-standing relationship, built on mutual co-operation and shared success.
“We will together rigorously pursue every avenue in our investigation into these serious allegations.”
Mr Ephgrave, a former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, is the first non-lawyer to run the SFO since it was established in 1987. He took over the running of the SFO in September 2023.