The company was prosecuted at London’s Southwark Crown Court by the Serious Fraud Office. It was the first time charges have been brought against a firm in the UK for overseas corruption and breaching UN sanctions.

The court heard Mabey & Johnson had a “culture” of kickbacks that breached the United Nations’ oil-for-food programme in Iraq, and the firm had paid bribes of about £1m to officials in a bid to secure work.

The court heard that the company first started paying bribes in Jamaica in 1993.

SFO director Richard Alderman said: “This is a landmark outcome.

“The first conviction in this country of a company for overseas corruption and for breaking the UN Iraq sanctions and, satisfyingly, achieved quickly."