'No-one living in Covid testing lab', court hears

A former politician accused of running a bogus coronavirus testing laboratory has denied there were people living on the site.

Faisal Shoukat, who served as a Labour councillor on Calderdale Council, is on trial at Bradford Crown Court along with four others involved in RT Diagnostics - including the company's co-director, former Justice Minister Shahid Malik.

The defendants are accused of running a fraudulent business and public nuisance. Mr Shoukat, a pharmacist from Halifax, and Mr Malik, from Burnley, are also accused of money laundering.

The defendants have denied all of the charges.

Earlier in the trial, the firm's site at Park Works in Halifax was likened to a "building site" by a medical safety inspector who visited there in August 2021.

Giving evidence at Bradford Crown Court, Mr Shoukat, of Saville Park, said RT Diagnostics had moved out of the premises by that time.

"There wasn't anybody living upstairs," he told jurors.

Alan Taylor, a compliance officer at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), previously claimed to have found mattresses on the top floor, as well as a fridge and a washing machine which was still wet inside and plugged in, suggesting it had been recently used.

Mr Shoukat said the ground floor, where RT Diagnostics' testing operation had been based, was sealed off to prevent other people in the building gaining unauthorised access.

The 39-year-old dismissed a suggestion from another witness that people had also been "jumping out of the building" via upstairs windows.

"There would have been broken legs if you were jumping out of windows," he said.

Mr Taylor, who visited the site on consecutive days, also told the court he suspected someone had gained access to the building overnight, despite Mr Shoukat being instructed to leave it untouched while access arrangements were made after inspectors were initially unable to get in.

Asked why parcels on a windowsill - believed to be test kits - visible from the outside had been moved, Mr Shoukat replied: "They might have fallen over."

"If we had wanted to remove those test kits I had a whole month prior," he added.

Mr Shoukat said there was "not really" any reason he could think of why anyone else would want to touch the test kits.

The court also heard how five six-figure payments, totalling more than £1.2m, were made to Mr Malik's bank account in the days following the publication of an investigation into alleged wrongdoing by RT Diagnostics in The Sun newspaper.

Mr Shoukat said the decision to transfer dividends had been made in May, two months prior to The Sun's article, which he previously said had resulted in the downfall of RT Diagnostics.

He told the court: "Even if those payments were made on 17 July, the money transferred wasn't illegal, there was nothing wrong with transferring funds as a dividend.

"There were significant funds left in the account to cover issues."

Mr Shoukat, who was also paid dividends as a fellow shareholder, added: "Were we a fraudulent set-up the company could have been closed down, money transferred, and off you go to the Bahamas or wherever.

"That's not what happens."

Mr Shoukat said the shares he received would have been "similar" to those of Mr Malik, who the court heard was paid "just under" £1.5m by August 2021, but "far less than the tax man's shares".

RT Diagnostics made made £6.674m in 31 days between 16 May and 16 June 2021, jurors were previously told.

Prosecutors allege the company "purported to be a testing laboratory" when in reality tests were "dumped in a room" with customers sent fake negative results for the deadly virus, thereby endangering people's health.

Mr Shoukat's evidence is expected to conclude on Thursday after more than three weeks under oath.

The court is yet to hear evidence from Mr Malik or the three other defendants in the trial; Dewsbury East councillor Paul Moore, 56, Dr Alexander Zarneh, 70, and Lynn Connell, 64.

The trial is scheduled to last until March.

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