Ex-councillor guilty of running sham Covid-19 lab

A former councillor has been found guilty of running a bogus coronavirus testing laboratory during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Faisal Shoukat, who served on Calderdale Council, was convicted of causing public nuisance, fraudulent trading and money laundering after a trial at Bradford Crown Court.

Four other people on trial alongside Shoukat - former justice minister Shahid Malik, Lynn Connell, Paul Moore and Dr Alexander Zarneh - were cleared of any wrongdoing.

The verdicts were returned by His Honour Judge Chris Smith after the jury was discharged in April during their deliberations, when one member of the panel was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

Judge Smith criticised a catalogue of "systemic failures" at the business, for which Shoukat was responsible for the day-to-day running, telling the court: "The overriding thought at the time was simply to make money.

"Put simply, profit was put before professionalism and public safety."

RT Diagnostics was set up in March 2021 with Shoukat and Mr Malik named among the directors, after the government invited private companies to help meet the demand for testing, including so-called 'Fit-to-Fly' tests.

Prosecutors said 39-year-old Shoukat - who was a Labour councillor at the time - was the "controlling mind" of the Halifax-based firm.

However, the court heard that test kits sent out to customers - sourced from Turkey - did not meet the required standards in the UK.

It was also said the lab had returned a "suspiciously low" number of positive tests .

Between May and July 2021 it reported 138,738 tests, but only 45 of these were positive, with 123,058 showing as negative and one indeterminate.

A video published by The Sun newspaper in July of that year alleged tests were being dumped in a side room.

The video also showed the firm's laboratory at Park Works to be in poor condition, with rubbish strewn across the floor, its ceiling exposed and bin bags dumped outside.

Medical safety inspectors described the site on Lister Lane as a "building site" and said there was evidence of people living there.