Creditors of liquidated law firm to receive payouts after guilty plea
Creditors of liquidated law firm Public Interest Lawyers will begin to be repaid after its disgraced manager plead guilty to fraud.
The 67-year-old was the lead solicitor at Birmingham-based Public Interest Lawyers, where he led legal claims against British soldiers accused of mistreating Iraqi detainees following the 2003 Iraq War.
The fraud charges stem from claims related to the alleged killings of Iraqi civilians by British troops during the “Battle of Danny Boy” in May 2004.
Shiner pleaded guilty to failing to disclose when applying for public funding, that he had asked middlemen to approach potential claimants and had paid for referrals, breaching his firm’s contracts.
Stratford Hamilton of PKF Littlejohn Advisory, became the appointed liquidator to Public Interest Lawyers in 2017. However, it is only now, following the guilty plea, that the specialist contentious insolvency and specialist investigations (SI) team can begin to pay money back to creditors of the company.
Stratford, who has more than 20 years’ experience in handling typically complex, high-profile cases, says that Shiner’s guilty plea will now enable his team to begin the long process of distributing funds to creditors which will include a number of government departments.
Due to the actions of PKF Littlejohn Advisory’s Special Investigations team, recoveries were made in the case of over £2.2m.
“The government is not the only victim of Mr Shiner’s fraud, and we will continue to work closely with creditors in what is an incredibly complex and long-running saga,” he says.
In 2007, Shiner submitted legal aid claims for about £200,000 to represent clients like Khuder Al-Swead, who accused British soldiers of unlawfully killing his newphew at the age of 19.
In making the application, Shiner failed to disclose that an agent acting on his behalf and with his knowledge had been cold calling and making unsolicited approaches to potential clients in Iraq.
He also failed to disclose that he was paying referral fees. This practice was not permitted as part of gaining a Legal Aid Contract.
He was also convicted for providing 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, Shiner was able to gain a valuable legal aid contract to enable him to pursue the judicial review.
The Al-Sweady Inquiry, which cost £24m, looked into allegations that British troops killed civilians in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. While the inquiry cleared soldiers of the most serious unlawful killing charges, it did find evidence of some mistreatment of detainees.
He will be sentenced in December.
