DIRECTORS at Jarvis, the rail maintenance group at the centre of the Potters Bar rail crash inquiry, were paid six-figure bonuses just days before the accident, write Robert Winnett and Jonathon Carr-Brown.

The payments to Paris Moayedi, chairman of the firm, and his fellow directors will be disclosed in Jarvis’s annual report next month and are set to cause outrage among the families of the seven people who died in the May 2002 accident.

Last week an interim report by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) blamed poor maintenance of the track during the period for which the directors are being rewarded as the most likely cause of the accident.

A source at Jarvis, which initially claimed the accident had been caused by vandals, confirmed the bonus payments last week. “The bonuses were paid in April 2002 and were worth more than £100,000 apiece.”

This is the second time that Moayedi’s pay has caused controversy. At the time of the crash it was revealed that in the previous year, when he was chief executive, he had received a large rise and bonus, taking his package to £595,000.

The bonuses are modest in corporate terms, but this will be no consolation to the victims’ families, who have been refused legal aid to sue the firm.

Louise Christian, who represents victims’ relatives, said they would be incensed because Jarvis and Network Rail, the successor to Railtrack, had taken an aggressive approach to the question of compensation.

Although Railtrack, which managed the rail network, initially said it was willing to pay up to £1m in compensation per victim, the sums offered have been much smaller.

A Jarvis source said the firm would be willing to offer compensation if the final HSE report confirmed the findings of the interim report. Bonuses and pay rises for the year since the crash would be “frozen” until the final report was published.

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