Three oil executives were jailed for price-fixing yesterday in Britain's first prosecution for cartel offences.

Peter Whittle, a consultant, was sentenced to three years for his role as global co-ordinator of a cartel that fixed the prices of marine hoses, which are used to transfer oil from tankers to storage facilities.

Bryan Allison, former managing director of Dunlop Oil and Marine, one of six companies in the cartel, was jailed for three years. David Brammar, Dunlop Oil & Marine's sales director, was jailed for 30 months.

All three had pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court, London, to a single cartel offence on Tuesday. They will be eligible for release after serving half their sentences.

Whittle was disqualified from being a director for seven years and Brammar and Allison for five years.

Judge Geoffrey Rivlin told the three they were guilty of a “carefully orchestrated and comprehensive process” of fixing prices, which has been a criminal offence in the UK since 2003.

The Office of Fair Trading, which brought the prosecution, said that it would continue to prosecute cartel offences.

The judge said that by using codenames, secret meetings and Swiss bank accounts, the three men had conspired to cheat customers, including the Ministry of Defence, into paying higher prices.

The judge said that Whittle, 51, was paid $300,000 a year for several years to run the scam, which he did “as a full-time job”. The cartel is the subject of separate inquiries by the European Commission and the US Department of Justice.

Whittle, Allison and Brammar were arrested in the United States last year after a cartel meeting was bugged.

They were allowed to return to Britain after striking a plea-bargain with the Department of Justice, under which they agreed to plead guilty in the UK and serve minimum jail sentences.

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