Covid testing lab was 'like building site' - court

Faisal Shoukat, pictured leaving court, previously sat on Calderdale Council

A coronavirus testing laboratory run by two former politicians "looked like a building site", medical safety inspectors have told a court.

Former MP Shahid Malik, 58, is on trial at Bradford Crown Court with four others accused of fraudulent trading and causing a public nuisance. Mr Malik and another of his co-defendants, Faisal Shoukat, 37, are also accused of money laundering.

Staff from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) told jurors they found holes in walls, rubble on the floor and evidence of people living inside the premises used to handle tests for the deadly virus.

The defendants deny all of the charges against them.

The trial previously heard how Mr Malik, Labour MP for Dewsbury from 2005 to 2010, who also served as justice minister under Gordon Brown, and Mr Shoukat, a pharmacist and former Labour councillor on Calderdale Council, were the "driving force" behind RT Diagnostics.

They also had "some involvement" in the day-to-day running of the business and its laboratory, which operated from a "shoddy and inadequate" premises in Halifax.

The firm, described as a "cash cow" by prosecutors, generated £6.674m in a period of just over two weeks between 22 May and 6 June 2021.

Shahid Malik served as justice minister under Gordon Brown

Alan Taylor, a compliance officer at the MHRA, told the court he visited the RT Diagnostics site on consecutive days in August 2021.

"I was surprised. I was expecting something in a lot better condition," he said.

"It struck me that it was particularly derelict; there were windows missing. There was fencing all around it [...] it just appeared to be a semi-derelict building."

Mr Taylor said he and other inspectors arranged to re-visit the site the next day after Mr Shoukat told them he could arrange access with the building's landlord.

Despite Mr Shoukat being told the building should be left untouched during that time, Mr Taylor said a padlock on its security gates had been replaced when he returned, with parcels on a windowsill visible from the outside moved.

"It gave me the impression that somebody had been in the building overnight," he told jurors.

Once inside, Mr Taylor said the building appeared to be "a work in progress".

"I was very surprised at the condition of it for the business that was being run there."

The RT Diagnostics site, on Lister Lane off Francis Street in Halifax

Mr Taylor said Mr Shoukat "wouldn't go" to the top floor of the building, where he found mattresses on the ground, a fridge and a washing machine which was still wet inside and plugged in, suggesting it had been recently used.

He told the court he put his suspicions that people were living in the building to Mr Shoukat, who replied: "I think there are people living upstairs, but I'm not going to say that publicly."

Medical devices which weren't compliant with UK standards were among 27 items seized, the court heard.

Defending Mr Shoukat, Abdul Iqbal KC said his client had also said people living in the premises was "nothing to do with me" during his conversation with Mr Shoukat.

He also pointed out that no business was being done at the site during the time of the visit.

'A building site'

Another member of MHRA staff, Hannah McCarthy, said there was "lots of rubble and refuse around" when she visited the site.

"The bottom of the building looked like it was made out of old doors fastened together all in a row," she added.

"It looked like a building site."

Yong Sung Kwon, who visited the site with the MHRA in July 2021, told the court he spotted holes in the walls between 20 and 30cm in size, which "would go straight to the outside".

"When I was walking through the corridor it seemed like a room where there was a lot of rubbish on the floor," he added.

"It just seemed like construction rubbish; bits of walls broken down [and] a bit of wiring."

He also described the building's test kit packaging area as "slightly run down".

Despite Mr Shoukat telling inspectors the site had stopped operations, Mr Kwon said they saw a lab technician who appeared to be handling test samples in the laboratory.

Mr Kwon said Mr Shoukat had told him the company's non-compliance with the required standards had been "non-intentional".

Lynn Connell, 64, Dewsbury East councillor Paul Moore, 56, and Dr Alexander Zarneh, 70, are accused of fraudulent trading and causing a public nuisance.

The trial continues.