����ý

A key witness at the Edinburgh trams inquiry was suffering from jet-lag when he addressed the hearing, his former employers have said.

Andrew Fitchie was a senior lawyer with legal firm DLA Piper who was seconded to work for trams company Tie.

He admitted he knowingly allowed false information about Edinburgh's tram contract to be given to the council.

DLA Piper now says Mr Fitchie was "clearly exhausted" when he gave evidence after a flight from the US.

The tram inquiry is examining why Edinburgh's tram system was delivered years late, £400m over budget and mired in legal disputes.

Mr Fitchie - who handed back a £50,000 bonus fee for his role in drawing up the controversial contract - gave evidence over two days in October 2017.

He was questioned by inquiry counsel Jonathan Lake QC about his involvement in drawing up the contract.

He accepted that he allowed information about changes in the burden of risk in part of the contract to be submitted to Edinburgh City Council in May 2008 despite knowing it was false.

Criminal offence

Mr Fitchie said he accepted the legal implications of his evidence amounted to fraud, which he knew was potentially a criminal and civil offence.

Mr Fitchie told the inquiry that senior people at Tie, the company set up to manage the trams project, would also have known the information presented was inaccurate.

Later, Mr Fitchie said that when the documents were read as a whole he did not think they were deliberately misleading.

In its final submission, Mr Fitchie's former company suggests his testimony cannot be fully relied upon because of his travel schedule the day before he gave evidence.

It says: "Mr Fitchie was robustly and rigorously cross-examined by senior counsel to the inquiry for a day-and-a-half on 10 and 11 October 2017.

"On 10 October, after being subjected to a full day of cross-examination, and near to 4.30pm in the afternoon, Mr Fitchie was clearly exhausted.

"Under forceful cross-examination by senior counsel to the Inquiry, and at times when pressed directly by the Chair of the Inquiry, Mr Fitchie gave evidence which might suggest failings on his part to prevent misleading information being given by Tie to CEC (City of Edinburgh Council) relative to whether or not the scope and risk of the project had changed from the final business case.

"However, that evidence needs to be placed in context.

"It came in response to questioning during which he was not shown all of the relevant documents together and at a stage which was late in the day when Mr Fitchie was clearly exhausted."

A footnote to the submission, dated last month, adds: "As the Inquiry is aware, Mr Fitchie had travelled from the west coast of the USA the day before his evidence and would also have been dealing with the consequent time difference."

The trams were originally designed to run for 15 miles by 2011 at a cost of £375m. But a truncated nine-mile service opened in 2014 at a cost of £776m - with interest charges expected to push the final bill to about £1bn.

Inquiry chairman Lord Hardie is expected to produce a final report and recommendations at a later date.