A 'DOMINEERING' cable company chief pocketed £300,000 in return for awarding multi-million pound contracts in north Yorkshire and elsewhere, a court heard.

In return for the bribes, Michael Simmons is said to have put work worth £10 million into the hands of Enfield-based Cable Systems Ltd (CNS) between 1995 and 1996.

Simmons was construction director for Bell Cablemedia Plc, the country's third-largest cable communications company, the cash arriving into a Swiss bank account for him to collect.

At London's Southwark Crown court, Cormac Byrne, a director of CNS, denies corruption charges involving backhanders over cable-laying work in Leeds, Harrogate and Dartford.

The jury has heard that the bribes worked out at £1 per metre of work CNS completed in the three areas.

The court heard Bell Cablemedia held franchises to install cable in Leeds, Harrogate, York and Wearside in the north of England; Norwich, Peterborough and Lowestoft in East Anglia; Greater London; and a southern region taking in the Chilterns, Herfordshire, Worcester and an area outside London - including Dartford.

Bell Cablemedia's head of construction for the southern region, David Heffersan, told the court he had a difficult relationship with Simmons.

He said CNS was invited to tender for the Dartford work on recommendation and undercut rivals to gain the contract.

The witness said there came a time when Simmons - since sacked - asked for all tenders to be sent directly to him.

He believed Simmons was interfering, describing their relationship as a 'difficult one'.

He agreed he had described his superior as "domineering and demanding".

Byrne, 38, of Winchmorton, Batchnorth Hill, Rickmansworth, Herts, denies four charges of making corrupt payments as an inducement or reward.

The trial continues.