Senior NHS officials accused of accepting £70,000 in bribes have walked free from court after their trial dramatically collapsed half way through.

Medicine boss Paul Jerram, GP Dr David Turner, pharmaceutical businessman Noel Staunton and pharmacist Cathal Daly have all been discharged after their 12-week trial was scrapped six weeks in.

Mr Jerram and Dr Turner were accused of exploiting the NHS by acting as paid influencers for pharmaceutical companies and accepting secret payments to promote their prescription drugs.

Mr Staunton, whose consultancy firm represented pharmaceutical companies, allegedly bribed Mr Jerram and Mr Daly was said to have also accepted 'backhanders'.

Since the allegedly 'corrupt' scheme was first uncovered in 2015, considerable time, money and resources have gone into investigating the four men and bringing them to trial.

But now the trial at Southampton Crown Court, has been abandoned.

A court official said there were disclosure issues and that the defence had not seen materials deemed irrelevant at the start of the lengthy investigation which then turned out to be crucial during the case.

After complex legal discussions midway through the trial, the prosecution 'could not guarantee a fair trial' so the judge ordered the jury to return not guilty verdicts on all charges.

Now, the defendants could be awarded thousands of pounds at a costs hearing next month to cover their legal bills.

The allegations surrounding the defendants, which relate to the NHS on the Isle of Wight, where three of them were based, first came to light in 2015.

An undercover investigation by the Daily Telegraph exposed alleged wrongdoing by Mr Jerram, 69, and an investigation followed.

Mr Jerram, head of medicine management and lead pharmacist at IoW Clinical Commissioning Group [CCG], and Mr Turner, 66, a GP and consultant at the CCG, ran limited company JTRx alongside their NHS work.

Mr Staunton, 60, a friend of Mr Jerram, represented large pharmaceutical companies through his business 3i Consultancy and was said to have paid his friend to promote their medicine.

Mr Jerram, of Shanklin, Isle of Wight, was charged with six counts of bribery and one count of corruption while Mr Turner, of Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, was charged with five counts of bribery.

The pair allegedly received or accepted a total of £62,560, with Mr Jerram receiving or accepting an additional £6,200.

Mr Staunton of Seaview on the Isle of Wight, faced a corruption charge relating to a payment of £2,000 and a bribery charge relating to paying a £4,200 fee.

Mr Daly, 51, of Norwich, Norfolk, faced a bribery charge relating to receiving £1,000 from Mr Jerram and Mr Turner. He allegedly encouraged South Norfolk CCG, where he worked, to sign a rebate deal which was profitable for the pair.

Pharmaceutical companies were not accused of wrongdoing.

Read more news at Isle of Wight County Press