Phil Shiner pleads guilty to legal aid fraud

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Shiner: Sentencing in December

Disgraced human rights lawyer Phil Shiner has pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud over legal aid applications for claims against British soldiers accused of ill treatment of Iraqi detainees.

He will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court in December.

The charges relate to applications for legal aid worth up to £200,000 made in 2007 without disclosing to the Legal Services Commission (now Legal Aid Agency) that his firm, Public Interest Lawyers in Birmingham, had engaged an agent to cold call clients in Iraq and had also paid referral fees.

In addition, he provided a witness statement to the commission in support of his application which was again gained by an unsolicited approach.

As a result of the failure to disclose this information, Mr Shiner was able to gain a legal aid contract to enable him to pursue the judicial review. In total, the contract was worth £3m.

The charges relate to the fall-out from the al-Sweady inquiry, set up to examine claims that British troops in Iraq had massacred civilians in the so-called Battle of Danny Boy in 2004.

The inquiry, which cost £31m, cleared soldiers of the most serious allegations of unlawful killing, but found there had been some mistreatment of detainees. Public Interest Lawyers and Leigh Day were the two firms represented Iraqis making the claims.

There was a huge political backlash against the solicitors involved and, though Leigh Day was cleared of any wrongdoing, Mr Shiner was struck off after 22 charges of professional misconduct, including dishonesty and lack of integrity, were upheld against him.

The charges included authorising unsolicited direct approaches to potential clients arising out of the Battle of Danny Boy, paying prohibited referral fees to, and approving an improper fee-sharing arrangement with, a middleman and later bribing him to change his evidence on how the clients had been identified.

The one-time Law Society solicitor of the year was also found to have misled the SRA, failed to comply with his duty of candour to the court and of full and frank disclosure to the Legal Aid Agency.

He petitioned for bankruptcy the following month, declaring that he had no money to pay his creditors following the closure of Birmingham-based Public Interest Lawyers the previous year after its legal aid contracts were pulled.

Less than a year later, the bankruptcy restrictions were extended by five years over his efforts to deny paying creditors by gifting nearly £500,000 of assets to his family before declaring himself bankrupt.

Andy Kelly, head of the National Crime Agency’s international corruption unit, said: “This conviction is a milestone in what has been a thorough and complex domestic and international investigation.

“Shiner’s actions resulted in untold pressure and anxiety on members of the British Armed Forces, pursuing legal challenges funded through dishonest actions.”

Hilary Meredith-Beckham, chair of Cheshire firm Hilary Meredith Solicitors, is currently acting on a claim by falsely accused of brutality and abuses against Iraqi civilians between 2003 and 2009.

She said: “Phil Shiner is a disgrace to the profession. His conduct was criminal and abhorrent. He should hang his head in shame.

“As a result of Shiner’s criminal conduct, thousands of British soldiers were falsely accused of war crimes. He instigated a witch hunt based on deceit. And the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was a willing accomplice.”

She argued that it was “now clear” that the MoD breached its duty “to stand by those who serve”.

Ms Meredith-Beckham continued: “Instead, they allowed the Iraq historic allegations team to pursue innocent troops with false evidence of vile war crimes.

“The falsely accused have paid a huge price – shattered lives, broken marriages, ruined finances, stalled careers, poor mental and physical health.

“Although it is a step in the right direction, Phil Shiner’s downfall does not provide our troops with justice. We will continue to push ahead with our case against the MoD.”