Former human rights lawyer Phil Shiner today avoided a custodial sentence as he was sentenced to two years imprisonment suspended for two years for three counts of fraud over legal aid claims worth £200,000.
Shiner, wearing a pinstripe suit, spoke only to confirm his name during the sentencing this afternoon at Southwark Crown Court.
Shiner, 67, was the principal solicitor of Brimingham-based firm Public Interest Lawyers. He led the pursuit of legal claims against British soldiers accused of ill treatment of Iraqi detainees after the 2003 Iraq war.
The fraud convictions relate to claims made after the alleged killings of Iraqi civilians by British soldiers at the so-called ‘Battle of Danny Boy’ in May 2004. One of those who died was Hamid Al-Sweady. His uncle, Khuder Al-Sweady, alleged the 19-year-old had been unlawfully killed by British soldiers.
Shiner claimed around £200,000 in 2007 for his firm to represent clients, including Khuder Al-Sweady, in an application for judicial review. He failed to disclose to what was then the Legal Services Commission (now the Legal Aid Agency) that his firm had engaged in cold-calling clients and making unsolicited approaches to potential clients in Iraq. He also failed to disclose that he was paying referral fees, which was not permitted as part of gaining a legal aid contract.
Shiner was struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in 2017 for 22 charges of professional misconduct.
Southwark Crown Court heard that a costs order of around £700,000 from the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal after he was struck off by the regulator had caused the former lawyer’s bankruptcy.
His Honour Judge Hehir said the offending was ‘so serious only a custodial sentence is appropriate’ but a ‘number of factors’ – including that the ‘offending took place a very long time ago now’ meant it was not in the interest of justice for Shiner to ‘go straight to prison’.
‘You have already suffered professional and personal ruin,' the judge said. 'I do not consider it necessary to add to that by sending you straight to prison.’ Although your conduct was thoroughly dishonest, I do not consider you were primarily motivated by financial gain. What I think happened is that you allowed your enthusiasm for your clients’ cases to get the better of your professional and personal judgment.’
Sentencing Shiner, the judge added: ‘You committed these offences a long time ago now, in 2007. You were then a successful and well-regarded solicitor, and the principal of your own law firm, Public Interest Lawyers.
‘I stress that the offences you have admitted have nothing whatsoever to do with what transpired in the course of the Al-Sweady inquiry, or during the administrative court hearing which ultimately led to that inquiry. Rather, your offending relates to your conduct when applying for public funding to bring those judicial review proceedings.
‘In thoroughly dishonest fashion you failed to disclose to the Legal Services Commission [now the Legal Aid Agency] that you had breached two fundamental principles of practice. Cold-calling and the paying of referral fees are activities which solicitors are strictly prohibited from engaging in. You knew that perfectly well, and you also knew that the Legal Services Commission would not fund the judicial review if they knew that cold calling had gone on and that referral fees had been paid.
‘In failing to disclose the improper conduct in which you and your firm had engaged, you breached the considerable trust reposed in solicitors, who are officers of the court and expected to conduct themselves with the utmost propriety at all times.’
Shiner was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years on each of the three counts to run concurrently.
