Phil Shiner gets suspended sentence
A prominent ex-human rights lawyers has been handed a suspended sentence following his conviction for three counts of legal aid fraud relating to made up war crimes.
Phil Shiner, formerly a partner of Public Interest Lawyers, applied for £200,000 of legal aid in 2007 in order to pursue legal action against the Ministry of Defence alleging war crimes against Iraqi detainees.
Shiner ended up receiving a total of around £3 million to pursue the actions, the National Crime Agency has said. Following a legal action made by the former lawyer the UK launched the ‘Al-Sweady Inquiry’, which, after spending £24 million, determined that all of the most serious allegation were “wholly and entirely without merit or justification”, and were “the product of deliberate and calculated lies”.
During this time 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, and that he had been paying referral fees — a practice not permitted under the legal aid funding rules.
Having been struck off back in 2017, and admitting to three counts of fraud in October this year, Shiner has now been sentenced by Southwark Crown Court.
In his sentencing remarks Judge Christopher Hehir accepted that Shiner was not “primarily motivated by financial gain”, saying to the former solicitor that “you allowed your enthusiasm for your clients’ cases to get the better of your professional and personal judgment”, leading to actions that were “thoroughly dishonest”.
A two year sentence suspended for two years was appropriate, he said, because the offences took place “a very long time ago”, Shiner had faced “professional and personal ruin”, had not reoffended since, and was now “not in the best of health”.
Shiner declared bankruptcy back in 2017 after being struck off.
