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| TX: 10.01.06 - Miners' Compensation Update PRESENTER: JOHN WAITE |
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| Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. WAITE Well staying with the world of compensation, the Serious Fraud Office has begun investigating the activities of a prominent firm of Yorkshire solicitors and the National Union of Mineworkers. You may remember on You and Yours in November we revealed how miners who'd applied for government compensation for chest diseases and hand injuries contracted whilst working underground had been misled into paying some of that compensation to the Yorkshire NUM, run until recently of course by Arthur Scargill. Tens of thousands of former miners and their widows registered with a law firm called Raleys for compensation, the only firm of solicitors used by the NUM in the Yorkshire area. Well Shari Vahl wrote that story, reported that story, and she's here to tell us more about this latest development. Shari, what has happened precisely? VAHL John, I understand this morning that both the Serious Fraud Office and South Yorkshire Police economic crime division have been asked by the Law Society to look at these matters. And it also [indistinct word] the Department of Trade and Industry's coal health scheme, which is expected to cost the taxpayer about £7 billion, it's the biggest industrial compensation scheme the UK has ever seen. And it's allowed 750,000 sick miners and their families to use private solicitors to claim for the chest diseases and hand damage. Now crucially the government not only pays all the compensation but also all the legal bills. And in November we uncovered evidence showing that Raleys - this Yorkshire firm of solicitors - had told the claimants that they would have to pay a fee to the NUM out of their compensation because they claimed that the NUM was assisting with the miners' claims. Now we saw letters from solicitors, from Raleys, that led the former miners to believe that the union was somehow providing some kind of finance for the miners to make the claim against the government, when, as we all know, the government itself was paying all the legal bills. We think an estimated £10 million has been paid by the miners through Raleys to the NUM. But when I rang the Yorkshire NUM asking their general secretary, a man called Steve Kemp, to explain where in the accounts this money has been recorded he told me it was a preposterous question, none of my business, or Radio 4's and goodbye. And I understand that our report of that conversation has pricked the interest of the investigators. WAITE So Shari how is the Serious Fraud Office likely to proceed? VAHL Well both the SFO and the police will launch a preliminary investigation first. They'll be looking at whether or not there shall be a full inquiry, a full criminal inquiry, in other words they'll be studying the paperwork and they'll be asking did Raleys and the NUM act properly in taking a fee out of the compensation awarded to the miners and their families and how has that money been used. WAITE So what do Raleys and indeed the NUM have to say? VAHL Well I've been phoning them all morning and neither Raleys nor the NUM have been available for comment so far but we are still trying. WAITE There's already though of course a criminal investigation involving another set of solicitors and another major mining union. VAHL There is. Fraud Squad officers are looking at the financial relationships between another of the main mining unions - the Union of Democratic Mineworkers - and it's based in Nottinghamshire. The UDM's claims arm, Venside, is also in this investigation and three firms of solicitors and another company closely related to Venside called Indiclaim. But the Raleys NUM investigation is completely different from the Venside UDM investigation, although they both concern the same government scheme. WAITE Shari Vahl many thanks. Back to the You and Yours homepage The BBC is not responsible for external websites |
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