BRADFORD.Oct 24 (msn) – In a high-profile case at Bradford Crown Court, former Dewsbury MP Shahid Malik, 57, and four others are on trial for their alleged roles in a fraudulent Covid-19 testing operation, RT Diagnostics, which reportedly earned £6.67 million in just three weeks. Prosecutors claim the company, set up during the UK’s third lockdown in March 2021, operated with substandard practices and failed to meet government accreditation standards, exploiting the urgent demand for PCR testing.
Malik, who served as justice and communities minister under Gordon Brown before losing his seat in 2010, faces charges of fraudulent trading, causing a public nuisance, and money laundering. Faisal Shoukat, 37, a pharmacist with a chain of pharmacies, is accused of the same offenses. Lynn Connell, 64, Paul Moore, 56, and Alexander Zarneh, 70, are charged with fraudulent trading and causing a public nuisance.
The court heard that Malik and Shoukat allegedly used contacts in Turkey to source non-compliant components for PCR test kits distributed to customers. Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC stated that the duo provided the financial backing for RT Diagnostics and its laboratory in Halifax, West Yorkshire. Shoukat is said to have played a key role in listing the company on the government’s official Covid-19 test supplier website, while Malik and Shoukat controlled a second company with a similar name to manage the revenue.
Moore, a former office manager for Malik and now an independent Kirklees councillor after his Labour suspension, reportedly served as RT Diagnostics’ operations director. Zarneh, a registered scientist with the Health and Care Professions Council, allegedly held roles as clinical director or head of governance and is accused of lying to secure the company’s place on the government’s supplier list. Connell, meanwhile, managed laboratory staff and was linked to a third company allegedly created to replace RT Diagnostics after it failed an inspection.
The prosecution described RT Diagnostics’ Halifax laboratory as operating in “shoddy and inadequate premises” with holes in walls, scattered rubbish, and homeless individuals living upstairs—far from the “modern, purpose-built” facility promoted on the company’s website. The company is accused of providing false negative test results and reporting an unusually low number of positive cases, raising suspicions about its practices. Sandiford told jurors that RT Diagnostics sold more PCR test kits than it could process, with some customer samples left untested and discarded in a room. Complainants were allegedly informed their results were negative, despite no testing, leading some potentially infected individuals to forgo self-isolation.
All defendants deny the charges, and the trial, which underscores serious concerns about oversight in the UK’s pandemic response, continues.
