Mark Solon sizes up the risks of making false statements: go directly to jail, do not pass go, & do not collect £350,000
Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith’s recent decision to close the trial of eight men accused of a £7m carbon credit investment fraud after discovering that expert witness Andrew Ager had no relevant qualifications and had used recycled his witness statements made me choke on my breakfast eggs.
The judge said: ‘Andrew Ager is not an expert of suitable calibre. He had little or no understanding of the duties of an expert. He had received no training and attended no courses. He has no academic qualifications.’ Sadly, he is not alone in the camp of ‘naughty’ experts.
A bundle of mistakes
An expert witness who makes a false statement in a report, without genuinely believing it to be true, can expect the court to commit them to prison for contempt. In Liverpool Victoria Insurance Co Ltd v Zafar [2019] EWCA Civ 392, [2019] All ER (D) 20 (Apr), the Court of Appeal has set out guidelines to be followed by the courts
