THE Army has been criticised for its failure to boot out the son of Gordon Foxley, the crooked civil servant who took bribes to divert ammunition contracts away from Blackburn's Royal Ordnance Factory.

A Labour MP claimed in the Commons that Major Andrew Foxley should have been dismissed with dishonour for passing documents on to his father.

Mike Hall spoke out in the annual debate on the work of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee when Parliament broke up at the end of its year's work this week.

The Warrington South MP was commenting on a PAC report which exposed the full extent of Gordon Foxley's corruption.

The report showed that he received more than £3.5 million in bribes to divert work to companies in Germany, Italy or Norway. Mr Hall condemned the governments of those countries for failing to charge, try or convict any of the businessmen who bribed Foxley.

And he attacked the Swiss for refusing to give full details of the money that Gordon Foxley banked there.

He then turned to the case of the son and said: "Another worrying aspect of the case is that Foxley's son, Major Andrew Foxley - a serving Army officer - was found in possession of documents that he was passing on to his father.

"They contained information on commercial matters that would have been beneficial to Gordon Foxley's corrupt activities.

"Major Andrew Foxley was not dismissed from the service.

"Again, important questions need to be asked about the investigation into that case."

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