No charges over portico stone fiasco

A Scotland Yard fraud investigation into the fiasco surrounding the rebuilding of the South Portico of the British Museum in the wrong stone will not result in any prosecutions, it emerged today.

The Met probe into the £100 million Great Court refurbishment, centred on work carried out by a stonemason which resulted in the portico being constructed in French limestone, which did not match its surroundings, rather than the more expensive Portland stone from Dorset.

Managers of Easton Masonry Portland Limited (EMPL) were interviewed under police caution. No one was arrested.

The museum has refused to pay £250,000 - the approximate difference in the cost of the two stones - to Geoff Smith, one of the owners of the company.

Following the investigation, fraud squad officers sent a file to the Crown Prosecution Service but it has decided there is not enough evidence to pursue the matter.

The decision will be formally announced next week but the Evening Standard has learned there will be no charges.

A statement from the British Museum today said: " The museum has learned that the CPS has decided the supply by EMPL of Anstrude Roche Claire stone in unauthorised substitution for Portland Stone in the construction of the South Portico of the Great Court is not serious enough to warrant prosecution.

"This decision does not affect the civil law claims against the company, which charged for and said repeatedly it was providing Portland stone, whilst at the same time delivering the cheaper unauthorised-Anstrude stone. However the CPS's decision does reflect the basic difficulty inherent in any discussion of the South Portico... that Anstrude stone does comply with the specification upon which tenders for the portico were invited."

The museum claims EMPL insisted it was building the portico in Portland stone. However, in the contract the museum specified "stone from the Portland base bed or similar". Anstrude, like Portland, is an oolitic limestone.

It is possible EMPL will try to recover the £250,000 withheld by the museum. The British Museum is not taking action against EMPL.

English Heritage urged the Heritage Lottery Fund to withhold an "appropriate part" of its £1.7million payment for the portico. The fund is still considering how much money, if any, it will withhold.