Covid lab would have 'ironed out' problems - court
BBCA coronavirus testing laboratory which produced a "suspiciously low" number of positive results was operating in an "unprecedented" landscape, a court has been told.
Five people, including former justice minister Shahid Malik, are on trial at Bradford Crown Court accused of fraudulent trading and causing a public nuisance over their role in RT Diagnostics.
The firm was set up in 2021 but, within weeks of trading, allegations emerged that untested samples were being "dumped", with customers sent fake negative results for the deadly virus.
Mr Malik, 58, Faisal Shoukat, 38, Paul Moore, 56, Lynn Connell, 64, and Dr Alexander Zarneh, 70, deny all of the charges against them.
Addressing jurors in his closing speech on Wednesday, Abdul Iqbal KC, who represents former Calderdale councillor and pharmacist Mr Shoukat, said the coronavirus pandemic was an "unprecedented time in our life".
"It was fast-moving, it was unpredictable, it was confusing. Nobody seemed to know what was going to happen the next day.
"Even those experienced in diagnostic testing could be forgiven for saying they didn't know where they stood."
He told jurors: "That's the landscape against which you need to judge events at RT Diagnostics."
The trial was told how RT Diagnostics reported 138,000 test results, but only 45 of these were positive - a figure prosecutors had described as "suspiciously low".
They also alleged the firm's laboratory in Halifax did not have the capacity to conduct so many tests, nor did test kits sent to customers - sourced from Turkey - meet the required standards in the UK.
'Undoubtedly made mistakes'
Mr Iqbal said the company's test kits "could have been Rolls Royce products", but had been dismissed as "inadequate" because they had not been approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Unbeknownst to staff at RT Diagnostics, the assay they used to test for Covid-19 was not compatible with their testing software, Mr Iqbal told the court.
He added: "They undoubtedly made mistakes, but [the company] was en route to ironing out its problems.
"Had it been given a chance to do so beyond the few weeks it operated, it would have done so."
Mr Iqbal said the low number of positive test results "was not unique" to RT Diagnostics.
The firm was offering Day Two and Day Eight tests for people arriving in the UK, rather than those with symptoms, he added, meaning the rate of positive tests it generated would have been lower than the typical figure.
Mr Iqbal went on to say the possibility of "rogue internal staff operating without the knowledge of Faisal Shoukat" did not render his client guilty.
The short-lived business wound down its operation in the summer of 2021 after it was removed from the government's list of test providers amid mounting complaints from customers.
Mr Shoukat and Mr Malik, who were directors of RT Diagnostics, have also been charged with money laundering in relation to the payment of dividends from the operation, which they deny.
The trial continues.
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