Disgraced human rights lawyer Phil Shiner faces fraud charges over Iraq War abuse claims

Phil Shiner, the disgraced human rights lawyer, has now been charged with fraud linked to a series of legal claims made against Iraq War veterans.

Shiner, 65, is due to appear before magistrates in a criminal court, cementing his astonishing downfall. He was once voted human rights lawyer of the year and feted as a champion of Iraqi victims of alleged brutality by the British military.

Shiner, who founded and ran the now defunct law firm Public Interest lawyers, is facing three charges of fraud following a five-year investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA), Britain’s equivalent of the FBI. He was declared bankrupt in 2017.

Shiner, who lives in Birmingham, was struck off for dishonesty and other offences by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in 2017 for pursuing false torture and murder allegations against British troops.

He had brought thousands of criminal complaints to the Iraq Historic Investigations Team (Ihat), a body set up by the Ministry of Defence to investigate soldiers. Not a single one was ever charged and Ihat was shut down in 2017 and branded an “unmitigated failure”.

An NCA spokesman said: "Following an NCA investigation and CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] authorisation, Philip Shiner, 65 from Birmingham, will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday to answer charges in respect of fraud offences relating to legal aid claims made in 2007 and information provided to the Solicitors Regulation Authority in 2015."

Charges relate to al-Sweady inquiry

The charges relate to the fallout from the al-Sweady inquiry, set up by the Government, to examine claims that British troops had massacred Iraqi civilians in the so-called Battle of Danny Boy in southern Iraq in May 2004. The inquiry, which cost £25 million, concluded in 2014 that allegations of torture and murder were “wholly without foundation and entiely the product of deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility”.

The first charge against Shiner relates to an allegation that in September 2007 he “dishonestly failed to disclose” in a legal aid application for a hearing to demand the setting up of the al-Sweady inquiry that he had been “engaging in cold calling and the payment of referral fees”. According to the charges, Shiner had a “legal duty to disclose” the alleged cold calling and payments when making a claim for legal aid.

The second charge, dating back to October 2007, alleges that Shiner committed fraud by failing to disclose that he had obtained a statement corroborating testimony which he had “obtained through cold calling” and that the statement was used to obtain legal aid.

The third charge alleges that in April 2015, Shiner committed fraud by false representation in response to a question from the SRA, which he "knew was untrue and misleading", so he could continue to practise as a solicitor. The alleged false statement related to “cold calling of clients in Iraq in relation to alleged killings of Iraqi civilians by British Army personnel at the battle of ‘Danny Boy’.”

The first two charges carry a maximum sentence of a year in prison while the third charge is a maximum six months.

Tory MP 'determined to ensure accountability'

The 2004 battle gave rise to claims against British soldiers after an order to remove the bodies of the Iraqi dead from the battlefield and take them back to a nearby camp along with nine prisoners of war.

The detainees, who were insurgents with the Shia militia Mahdi Army, would go on to claim they had been mistreated and heard the torture and murder of their compatriots.

Among the dead was 19-year-old Hamid Al-Sweady, who gave his name to a public inquiry after his uncle Khuder Al-Sweady claimed he had been murdered at the British camp.

Johnny Mercer, a Conservative MP and former Army captain, who chaired a parliamentary inquiry into Ihat, said: “When I was doing my inquiries into Ihat and the pursuit of the veterans who served in Iraq I was determined to ensure there was accountability. As a result I reported Phil Shiner to the NCA and I note he has now been charged.”