Under cover of the hundreds of millions of pounds of fines that the Serious Fraud Office is attempting to slap on BAE Systems over various “incentive” payments it is alleged to have paid customers over the years, was the news the SFO had imposed a £6.6 million penalty for making bribes on Mabey & Johnson.

The case against bridgebuilding firm Mabey & Johnson was so open and shut that insiders at the privately owned British company genuinely feared for its future — such was the belief that the SFO punishment would be so severe. In the event, that hasn't happened.

Now the word is that if the SFO is going to be appear to be so lenient to companies caught red-handed but belatedly confess all, then BAE believes there should be a whole lot more negotiating with the fraud office before the size of any fine is agreed...

* WATCH out, another big fat bubble must be forming in the housing market. Savills apparently had the best sales month in the history of the firm in September. And the agent was founded in 1855 by Alfred Savill.

Testosterone-fuelled? Er, no...

Breathless coverage of the BGC-Tullett Prebon tapping-up row in one newspaper is greeted with much mirth on the Tullett trading floor. The senior correspondent must have a had a senior moment, as the florid copy referred to “bond traders [who] have a reputation for aggression and high living, their testosterone-fuelled working lives are short but fantastically well remunerated” and who “provide a network on which to trade in bonds and other instruments anonymously.”

City Spy's man says: “He seems to be confusing derivative brokers with bond brokers. Derivatives is generally where the money is, and this is what this case revolves around. Oh, and the market does not trade anonymously.”

* FROM satirical website The Daily Mash: “JJB drops Sports' from title after admitting it was fooling nobody.... The company admitted the word simply led to confusion and would only be reinstated if collecting incapacity benefit is included in the 2012 London Olympics. Brand consultant Tom Logan backed the move, adding: Athletic achievement has never been a top priority for their customer base'.”

* ON 1 November, auctioneers are selling the artwork that Lehman Brothers boss Dick Fuld had displayed around his office, personal dining room, gym and lobby. When it bought the bust bank's US operations, Barclays declined the chance to acquire the portfolio, which includes Roy Lichtenstein's I Love Liberty, so the administrators have put the whole lot up for auction.

War and Pease among Tories

WITH friends like these... Power couple Crispin Odey and Nichola Pease have been happy to nail their colours to David Cameron's New Tory Project. But is Dave pleased with the couple's sabre-rattling? Pease has this week told a committee of MPs that laws designed to prevent women being discriminated against in the City are going too far, and actually work against them. And Odey, a Tory donor, has been meddling in Irish affairs by bankrolling Declan Ganley's “no” to the Lisbon Treaty campaign — presumably a decent indication that Odey will be using his brass to agitate for cessation from the EU come the Cameron victory.

Mutiny in air at British Land

HOW many more of British Land's property stars are to quit the FTSE 100 giant, following retail director (and passed-over chief executive candidate) Andrew Jones out of the building? Jones and his close buddies Mark Stirling and the aristocratic Valentine Beresford have cleared their desks, having resigned to (not so secretly) set up their own retail property fund. But Stirling, despite not being allowed in the building, was seen hanging around British Land's West End headquarters in Seymour Street this week, perhaps ready to have a coffee and a chat with some of his former muckers...

* LINGERIE wars at Selfridges between posh undies brands Myla and Agent Provocateur. Staff at Myla — which also sells £199 gold vibrators — were overheard berating their neighbours. “Their stuff is so raunchy — not at all classy,” said one Myla seller of Agent Provocateur...

* SPORTINGBET'S attempts to shake off its image as an illegal American betting website and instead become one of Britain's and Europe's leading sports bookmakers is gathering pace. The online operator is seeking some of the credibility that many of its cyberspace rivals do not have by volunteering to pay 10% of its UK horseracing profits to the Levy Board, the body that puts up much of the prize money in British horseracing. Those in the know realise, of course, the vast majority of Sportingbet's income is from Europeans betting on football. Its UK horseracing business is in fact so small that its Levy contribution will this year amount to just £250,000, enough prize money for a fair few selling plates at Plumpton maybe but not even 1% of the £26 million Ladbrokes divvies up every year.