Key facts
- Former Labour MP Shahid Malik was cleared of all charges in a trial at Bradford crown court.
- Malik was accused of involvement in fraudulent trading, causing a public nuisance, and money laundering.
- RT Diagnostics, a Covid-19 testing company, allegedly provided false negative results.
- The company generated £6.67m in revenue over three weeks.
- Faisal Shoukat, a co-founder, was found guilty of all charges.
- The trial was conducted without a jury due to an allegation of jury tampering.
Shahid Malik, a former Labour MP and justice minister, has been acquitted of all charges related to his involvement with RT Diagnostics, a company that prosecutors alleged was set up to exploit the UK's Covid-19 test-and-trace system. Malik, who represented Dewsbury from 2005 to 2010 and served in Gordon Brown's government, was found not guilty of fraudulent trading, causing a public nuisance, and money laundering at Bradford crown court.
The trial, which began in October last year, proceeded without a jury after an allegation of jury tampering led to the discharge of the original jurors in March. Judge Smith took the unusual step of deciding the verdicts himself.
Prosecutors argued that RT Diagnostics, established in March 2021 as the third national lockdown was ending, operated from "shoddy and inadequate premises" and provided false negative test results. The company reportedly made £6.67 million in just three weeks. Jonathan Sandiford KC, the prosecutor, stated that the company generated a "suspiciously low number of positive results" and operated with untrained staff lacking proper protective equipment.
Malik's defence barrister, Jonathan Laidlaw KC, described Malik's role as "very limited indeed," primarily as a "facilitator" who provided funding and made introductions. Laidlaw argued that Malik was often abroad and unaware of the company's issues, and that his financial gain did not constitute a basis for a guilty verdict.
Faisal Shoukat, 39, who co-founded the business with Malik, was found guilty of all three charges. Paul Moore, 57, a manager at RT Diagnostics and Malik's former office manager, was cleared of causing a public nuisance and fraudulent trading. Lynn Connell, 64, and Alexander Zarneh, 70, also managers at the company, were similarly cleared of those two offences.