Covid testing fraud trial: five accused over £6.7m bogus PCR firm in Halifax
Five people, including ex-Labour minister Shahid Malik, are on trial at Bradford Crown Court over an alleged bogus Covid-19 testing service that generated £6.7m in weeks.
Ex-Labour minister and four others face fraud trial over Halifax Covid testing firm
Five people, including former Government Minister Shahid Malik, have gone on trial at Bradford Crown Court charged with operating a fraudulent Covid-19 testing service that generated more than £6.7 million in under three weeks, thetelegraphandargus.co.uk reports.
Malik, 57, of Colne Road, Burnley, along with Paul Moore, 56, pharmacist Faisal Shoukat, 38, Lynn Connell, 64, and Dr Alexander Zarneh, 70, each allegedly played a distinct role in bankrolling, owning or running Halifax-based RT Diagnostics Ltd between May and June 2021.
Prosecuting counsel Jonathan Sandiford KC told the jury that RT Diagnostics purported to be an accredited laboratory dispatching PCR home-testing kits to customers at the height of the government-funded NHS Test and Trace programme. Samples were returned to the company, which then reported results directly to the NHS.
In reality, Sandiford said, the kits had been sourced in Turkey and did not meet UK legal standards. The swabs lacked proper sterility certification, and the premises described as the laboratory were characterised by the prosecution as "shoddy, inadequate premises with holes in the walls and ceilings," with building debris on the floor and homeless people living on the top floor.
Staff with "little or no training" in Covid-19 sample handling were employed, with no social distancing observed and no PPE worn. Customers who attempted to complain could not get through by phone, and employees were instructed to issue false negative results from samples that had never been tested.
Between May and July 2021, RT Diagnostics submitted 123,104 PCR test results to the government. Of those, 123,058 were recorded as negative, just 45 as positive — a figure Sandiford described as "a suspiciously low number" — and one as indeterminate.
The company had applied to the UK Accreditation Body (UKAS) for laboratory accreditation but never completed the process, while telling UKAS what the prosecution described as "significant lies" about its facilities and procedures in an attempt to be listed among approved suppliers on a government website. Sandiford told the court: "Once you were on that list, the orders for tests came rolling in."
In the three-week period from 22 May to 6 June 2021 alone, RT Diagnostics generated revenue of £6.674 million — an average of £318,000 per day — from a service the prosecution said was both inadequate and legally non-compliant.
Large cash transfers were also made in June 2021: £1.22 million was moved to Malik's personal bank accounts, and £822,000 was paid to Shoukat under the name Halifax Healthcare.
When RT Diagnostics was removed from the government's approved supplier list, a second entity, Real Time Diagnostics, was established in mid-June 2021, with all funds generated by the original company transferred into its account. A third company, Avery Labs Ltd, fronted by Moore, was subsequently created when RT Diagnostics came under government review. Sandiford described it as "a phoenix company" and "an attempt to resurrect the cash cow of RT Diagnostics."
Malik served as MP for Dewsbury from 2005 to 2010 and was appointed Justice Minister in the Labour Government in 2008.
All five defendants have pleaded not guilty to public nuisance and fraudulent trading. Malik and Shoukat have additionally pleaded not guilty to money laundering charges related to RT Diagnostics Ltd.
The trial, expected to last 14 weeks, continues.
Source: The Sun