Overview
- Five defendants, including former Labour minister Shahid Malik, are on trial at Bradford Crown Court for fraudulent trading, public nuisance, and, for two, money laundering.
- The court heard RT Diagnostics operated from substandard premises with untrained staff and used Turkish-sourced kit components alleged not to meet UK standards.
- Prosecutors say the firm reported 123,104 PCR results between May and July 2021 with only 45 positives, and that unprocessed samples were dumped while some customers were sent false negatives.
- Jurors were told key figures made “significant lies” about roles, accreditation and operations to secure a place on the gov.uk supplier list and keep orders flowing.
- After removal from the approved list, successor entities were created, revenue was routed through Real Time Diagnostics, Avery Labs was set up, and large transfers were made including £1.22m to Malik and £822,000 to Faisal Shoukat; all defendants deny the charges and the multi-week trial continues.